I. PROPITIATION.

The subject of our Lord's High-priesthood has been exercising many hearts of late. I propose to look at it, as He may enable me, not in the spirit of controversy as I trust, but as seeking the Scriptural solution of certain questions as to it which have been raised.

First, granting, as all must, that it is heavenly in character, where did it begin to be exercised-on earth or in heaven?

Secondly, what is propitiation? is it true priestly work? and when and how has it been effected?

In awakening attention to these subjects, God has surely purposes of blessedness for us-more blessing, perhaps, than we can realize yet at all. Nothing but good can come from the free discussion of them. To shun to follow where He leads would be cowardice or indifference. Satan would turn it indeed to conflict, drive away the timid by the noise of battle, incapacitate others by the heat of it, and divert us from the blessing. But we are not ignorant of his devices; and if by grace we have conquered our own spirits, we need not fear him, nor with Isaac yield our wells of water to the Philistine. Faith may turn even Eseks and Sitnahs to Rehoboth’s; the living water is God's gift to all.

We come then to Scripture to seek its teaching as to priesthood and propitiation. And the first question we have naturally to ask is, what is the idea of priesthood, and what the office of the high-priest, as to this ?

Now the high-priest is, of course, only the priest par excellence; and his office in its essential character is defined for us in the epistle to the Hebrews, where alone indeed the doctrine of our Lord's priesthood is unfolded. "Every high-priest taken from among men," then, we are told, "is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way, for that he himself is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people so also for himself, to offer for sins." (Chap. 5:1-3.)

Here we have only the Jewish high-priest, " taken from among men," and are warned afterward not to apply to the Lord, the being compassed with infirmity, on account of which he must offer for his own sins as well as others. Our high-priest is one " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." " The law maketh men high-priests which have infirmity, but the word of the oath maketh the Son." (Chap. 7:26-28.)

With these exceptions, then, manifestly the description applies in the fullest way to the Lord; and we have it so applied in chap. 2:17-18:"Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation"-so rightly the R. V.-"for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."* *The last sentence has, with some, raised a question of the meaning of the preceding one, and in the English there is perhaps some real difficulty. The succoring those that are tempted is a very different thing from making propitiation for their sins ; and the Lord's sympathy here is not with men as sinners, but with saints in resisting sin. But the difficulty proceeds from want of knowledge of the language, in which the "for" is not an explanation of what precedes, but a further deduction from His being a merciful and faithful High-priest. We might render it more clearly perhaps by "indeed." Examples of this use of "for" (Har) may be found in the following passages, where it is omitted in the A. V. " [for] neither can they die any more" (Luke 20:39); " [for] neither came I of Myself." (Jno. 8:42.) In the following it is translated "indeed:" (1 Thess. 4:10), "And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren;" (Rom. 8:7), "Neither indeed can be." Many similar cases could be given, but these are enough to show the use.*

These two things are ascribed to the Lord in His character as High-priest-the making of propitiation, and succoring the tempted. The first has to do with men as sinners, the second, as saints. For both these things He had to be made like unto His brethren, to be a partaker in flesh and blood. Both these things are the work of the High-priest as such, and the making propitiation, or offering sacrifice for sins, is distinctly marked out as belonging both to the typical and antitypical priest. In particular it is pressed as to the Lord Jesus, that His being a merciful and faithful High-priest was to make propitiation.

It is impossible, therefore, to maintain that propitiation is not a priestly act; that indeed it was the priest who did it, but only because what Christ was in Himself cannot be separated from what He did. On the contrary it is distinctly, positively asserted that Christ was the High-priest to do this; it was part of His strictly official work, if any thing was.

But we must now ask further, what was it to make propitiation ? The expression we have not again in Hebrews; but in 9:5 the mercy-seat is indeed by its equivalent in the Septuagint, and what far better than our English word represents the Hebrew,-" the propitiatory," or place of propitiation. This is found also in Rom. 3:25, where Christ is called " a propitiation through faith, by His blood." So the R. V. better translates it, as it shows what propitiates,-the blood which was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, and made it such.

Twice, also, in the epistle of John we have Christ named as "the propitiation for our sins." (i Jno. 2:2 ; 4:10.)

The use of the word for " mercy-seat" extends our view to the Old Testament, in which, by the help of the Septuagint, we find that the word "propitiation " is a regular equivalent for what in our common version is "atonement," and there is no other word to express this. We may thus easily follow out the study of the word with our English Bibles only.

It is to the day of atonement that the epistle to the Hebrews refers all through. It was then that the high-priest entered the holiest with the blood of atonement, and the whole work of the day except only the letting go of the scape-goat, and the burning of the sin-offerings (Lev. 16:26-28), fell upon him. No other could intrude. Even the killing of the victims, which ordinarily was not priestly work, was on this day committed to his hand (10:11-15.) Now, if we follow the ritual of that day as we find it in the 16th of Leviticus, and only substitute "propitiation" for "atonement," as we are entitled to do, we shall realize in what way propitiation was made,-in what way the passage in Heb. 2:is to be interpreted.
First, then, (5:6) " Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and make propitiation for himself and for his house " . . . . (5:10); "but the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make propitiation with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness."

Then follow the details of the sin-offering work:"And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin-offering which is for himself, and shall make propitiation for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bullock …. and take of the blood and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward."

So with the goat for Israel,-" he shall sprinkle the blood upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat, and he shall make propitiation for the holy place, …. and there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make propitiation in the holy place, until he come out and have made propitiation for himself and for his household and for all the congregation of Israel."

But this does not end the work:"And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make propitiation for it, and take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about."

After the dismissal of the scapegoat further, Aaron "shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the offering of the people, and make propitiation for himself and for his people."

Thus "propitiation" is made both in the holiest and outside it, by sin-offering, burnt-offering, and even scapegoat. Did we pursue our inquiry further this wide application of the word would be shown continually, but we need not go beyond the day of atonement.

What is "propitiation"?

" Propitiation" is " appeasal," " satisfaction." This is undoubtedly the ordinary force of the Greek word outside of the New Testament. Here, too, the Lord puts in the mouth of the publican in the temple the prayer, " God be propitiated," as it literally is, "unto me a sinner. (Luke 18:13.) In the Old Testament we have similarly the use of the Hebrew word where Jacob says of Esau, " I will appease (or propitiate) him with the present going before (Gen. 32:20). There are no more instances of this use in Scripture, but these suffice to show the analogy of the two words used in the original.

Every sacrifice was a propitiation then, whether or not the blood was brought into the holiest. The blood was given for propitiation, and given upon the altar for propitiation, so it is expressly stated (Lev. 17:11). Yet no altar stood in the holiest. And while the slaying of the victim was not necessarily priestly, and was not propitiation, as it has been strangely taken to be, the offering of the blood was strictly confined to the priest.

Only the blood of the victim burned without the camp could enter the sanctuary. Neither trespass-, peace-, nor burnt-offering could be represented there. Yet the blood of the goat for Israel enters as freely as that, of the bullock for the priestly house (the Church typically). The burning without the camp is the well known figure of wrath and distance from God, which, borne by a substitute, are removed, and the soul brought nigh to God in peace. It is this exhaustion of wrath which allows the blood to enter the sanctuary. So the apostle clearly states, "For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high-priest for sin are burned without the camp; wherefore Jesus, also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate (Heb. 13:11, 12).

Another expression of this solemn reality we find in the darkness which fell in mid-day like a pall over the cross, and out of which the Lord's voice was heard in the question of the 22nd psalm-a
question not unanswered though,-" My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Darkness is the withdrawal of light, and " God is light." Here was indeed the outside place of sorrow, hopeless save to Him who could there illumine it with His moral glory, and glorify God in the depths of unequaled distress. For three hours-from the sixth to the ninth*-He remains under it, passing out from it to die indeed, but with the assurance, " It is finished," and the cry of " Father," once more upon His lips. * Those who can read the spiritual meaning of Scripture numerals will realize it here. Six speaks of evil under the hand of God, limited and restrained; 9 is 3 x 3, the number of divine manifestation intensified by self multiplication. With this the darkness passes, the same number 3 measuring and characterizing its whole duration. (See "The Numerical Structure of Scripture," pp. 33-34.)*

We must learn to distinguish here, if yet we have not, two very distinct parts of the Lord's atoning work. Death and judgment were upon man. He must take them both in order to redeem. But with man, death introduces him to judgment, which is thus final and eternal. The Lord takes them in inverse order, judgment first, which, having fully borne, glorifying God in stooping to the full penalty of sin, He dies-atonement is completed.

Let us remember, then, the wrath is borne, exhausted, before He dies. The blessed Substitute has been presented to God as that, sin laid on Him by Jehovah as such, wrath poured out, an actual dealing of God with His soul in view of sin; and that is ended, the burden in this respect removed; and why removed? there is one answer possible- only one:because the work is accepted; if not, could He who had laid on Him the heavy burden lift it off? Thus He can say, "It is finished"; for though He had to die, death is nothing now. Needed for atonement as the governmental penalty of sin, He can meet it with the weight from off His spirit, for the cup He feared is drained.

And now comes a main point for consideration:Is the acceptance of the atoning work looked at in the type as taking place in the sanctuary ? or does the entrance of the blood there imply that it is already accepted ?

Scripture shows clearly that the latter is the truth. Could the entrance of anything questionable be permitted in the holy place? Assuredly not by God. The blood enters, not under suspicion, but by its own power and value with Him. It enters "to make propitiation for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins ; " but this implies no question of the blood which does this! The dwelling-place of God has been in the midst of a sinful people, spite of all their sins accumulating for a whole year, and the blood comes in its power to vindicate His throne in remaining thus. Notice, that after it has been sprinkled on the mercy-seat, it passes out from thence to the altar, exactly in the same way to be sprinkled upon it, and make propitiation for it, "to cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel." Is this, too, for the acceptance of the blood a second time ? and if not, why then the first time?

How is this expressed, in the sprinkling of the mercy-seat, as it is not expressed in the sprinkling of the altar? In both oases it is for propitiation; in both it is cleansing for sin. By the one the throne is established; by the other the altar. How does either raise or show a question as to the blood which does this? The only answer can be, in neither case is there any.

The propitiation in the holy place is only the application to the throne as to the altar, of satisfaction rendered to God, not in the holy place but outside it. Confessedly it is this as to the altar; equally must it be so as to the throne. And with this the interpretation in the New Testament agrees fully. The type is in the epistle to the Hebrews put side by side with its fulfillment. Let us look at it as stated there.

(To be continued.)

CHAP. I. 6-12.

We are now, so to speak, upon a hill-top from whence we view the " city that hath foundations," and the country that is heavenly,- and what a prospect is before us!

Nothing that the eye has seen can be compared to it; for " it is written,' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (i Cor. 2:9.) This being our hope, it is added, in the chapter before us, "Wherein ye greatly rejoice," as in Rom. 5:"we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

But let us pause here to consider, What is it we are speaking of? A prospect such as no eye has seen, opened out before us, made known to us by the Spirit of God, and wherein we "greatly rejoice."

Mark the words, and their strength,- "greatly rejoice." In what? In that which is always before the eye of faith, and ever the same, in hope of which we are said to greatly rejoice. The occasion of this great joy, then, never changes, only we are constantly getting nearer to its realization.

Now, we live by the food we eat, and spiritually we live by every word of God. But are we living by this word? do we greatly rejoice? If we are rebuked, we are comforted as well; for is it not deep comfort to know that we may constantly rejoice in this certain and blessed hope, since we are called upon to do so? All Christians have inward and deep joy at the unutterably blessed prospect before them; but how fluctuating is that joy in most of us, which ought to be a strong and steady tide bearing us onward in the power of God for worship and for service! Why are dying Christians often specially lifted up, but that the dross has been rapidly purged away by their chastening, the gaze being set upon glory, and the world receding from view? But why should not this be our abiding state?-why should we not abide in Christ, and resist the first allurement to depart from that place of abiding peace, though we have to cut off the right hand or pluck out the right eye? But no policy or philosophy can keep us there,-only the obedience of faith, and holy fear, by His grace.

The Lord Himself,"for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross."

First, the energy of hope, ever nearer its realization-"the day is at hand;" then, readiness to forsake all and follow Him.

But now comes the trial of the faith as gold is tried in a furnace. We have to descend into the valley of experience-of experience of suffering, for there is a needs-be, and there the heart rests. But though we descend into the valley, yet we abide on the hill-top; for the human figure fails, because by the grace of God we are to abide in our hope while we pass on through the trial; and the right word here is not " heaviness," which might imply failure, but "put to grief"-"Though now for a season, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations."

"Grief" we cannot avoid; but we need not be cast down, and in this there is great power and comfort from God. If we had been told in the Word that gloom and heaviness were a necessity, it would be hard indeed; and yet, by strange inconsistency, we are ready to impatiently refuse the exhortations that comfort-as if it were a privilege and a right to be at times overcome with sorrow and the trials of the way. Let no one make light of sorrow, in their own case or that of others, or aim or pretend to be easily above it:a superficial and flippant reference to comforting scriptures, or imposing them as a law upon sorrow, is but an insult to sorrow-sacred depths with which a stranger can't intermeddle. Such an effort, however sincere, is not true ministry to sorrow; "Jesus wept" is the divine rebuke to such an error.

But neither extreme justifies the other:sorrow is not to be made light of; nor, on the other hand, are we to view it as if God's hand were not in it, either in sullen or shy seclusion, or in that imperious spirit of grief that would have the world clad in blackness because of our own woe. He would have us rather come forth brighter and stronger to love and serve others by the refining; and when we have learned to say, " Thy will be done," He delights to draw very near, and to minister deep and sweet consolation.

There are two things that men think little of that God highly esteems,-the " meek and quiet spirit" is one, in the sight of God, of great price (chap. 3:4), and " the trial of our faith, which is more precious (R.V.) than of gold which perishes." This precious word in Peter makes plain to us the reason for sore trials that we experience. The faith tested and proved genuine, as was Abraham's is acceptable to God. The pure metal gratifies the refiner,-the pure gold; but gold is perishable after all, but faith has fruit that will endure forever. And He who tests and refines supplies the strength to endure, as at the burning bush; but there must be the testing, and only that which is of God can endure. In Gen. 15:, Abram beheld, when the sun had gone down (significant of the darkness of this world), a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passing between the pieces of the sacrifice. God was marking out the basis and conditions of a covenant with His people:salvation by the cross-by a sacrifice, the Word as our lamp, and the furnace of trial. But whether it is the burning bush, or the three in Daniel in the burning fiery furnace, or the martyr's faith amid the flames of many fires, that which is of God endures, and it will be to His praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Christ, and to the praise and glory of His people; for "glory, honor, and peace" (Rom. 2:) await any one that worketh good.

The appearing of Jesus Christ is the time when all will be brought to light. Nothing is of real value that will not shine then. That which is of faith_ that which is by the grace of Christ-that which is the denial of ourselves, and submission to God, and love to our brethren, and humbling of ourselves, will be honored and exalted then-before God, the holy angels,-the great examination and exhibition day. Therefore nothing that we do is unimportant. "Every man shall give account of himself to God." This will always encourage to diligence every true heart, like a faithful servant who labors with both -interest and zeal when he knows that his master's eye will survey every part of his work, and that he will bestow approval and reward.

Faithful servants "love His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8.) for they seek to walk honestly, as in the day, knowing that they are made manifest unto God. They are letting the light of the coming day into the secret corners of their heart already, that the ways and maxims of darkness may not prevail with them. We do not need to wait for that day to know what will please the Lord. He has told us in His Word and according to that Word all will be judged.

May we delight to view all things in our hearts and in our lives in the light of that coming day.

" Whom not having seen ye love, in whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." To these precious words, every truly converted heart responds with deep delight, as the lame man leaped and walked and praised God. We love Him, we
rejoice in Him, with joy deeper than can be told. And then the expression used is too full to be easily otherwise expressed, " full of glory,"-that is, a joy looking on to the glory, as it were already lit up with the light of the coming day, like Stephen's face as the face of an angel. This joy must have filled Paul's heart when he said, " I am ready to be offered." How great the difference between the world and the Christian! Of the one it is said, " They have both seen and hated both Me and My Father;" of the other, that in that same One so hated, he rejoices with joy unspeakable. What a striking suggestion of the new nature in contrast with the old-the carnal mind, which is enmity against God! May the love of Christ possess our hearts, and draw them out every hour.

And now the soul's salvation is spoken of as received by the believer, and this is the salvation spoken of by the prophets, who were themselves interested to inquire into the scope of their own prophecies. What they declared was revealed to them from on high-from God. With reverent minds, they inquired, and searched diligently, about the sufferings of Christ, and the glories to follow. It was the Spirit of Christ in them that testified of those things. These statements are of deep interest, telling us of the power by which the prophets spoke, and of their own exercises of heart about the things foretold. God used them as instruments, by a power beyond themselves, but their souls were in communion with God; and thus, devoutly waiting upon God, God revealed to them that they were ministering things for those who were to come after. " Not unto themselves, but. unto you did they minister those things." The words "unto you" are frequent and emphatic in this chapter, to remind this feeble remnant of faithful ones that though despised and feeble, yet rich and precious things were now in Christianity being ministered unto them by the gospel. The prophets looked eagerly forward to these things. John the Baptist said, " This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled." Simeon said, " Now, Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; . . . for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." And the Lord Himself said (Matt. 13:) to His own, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and you ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them (did not see them); and to hear those things which ye hear, and did not hear them." And in this verse before us, we are told the angels desire to look into these things. Thus are we graciously encouraged to value what has been brought to us by the gospel. Naturally, these Jews, dispersed in foreign lands, and in humiliation, would look back to the times of the prophets, and to the times of David and of Solomon-glory, as times of greater blessing and power. And such is our own tendency; but in reality, those of Old-Testament times looked forward with deep longing and wonder to what we now enjoy. Do we consider this? The consideration of it is thus pressed upon us by this holy Scripture; and as we think of it, the soul is filled with holy awe and deep joy, and the present is filled up for us with the presence of God. " Old things are passed away:behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." And this glad tidings is preached to us with or in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

The power that brought us from death to life, even that power that brought Christ from the dead (Rom. 8:11), is the power by which we receive the gospel. And that works in us to enjoy the things freely given to us of God.
If we are seated at the gospel-feast-the royal banquet, the fallings killed, and clad in the best robe, with sounds of heaven's joy about us, may our hearts be filled with the joy of heaven, and with abhorrence of sin, and with the calm but deep persuasion that the power of God is with us, to give entire victory over all that we have to meet. E. S. L.

When first I heard of Jesus,
It seemed some mystic tale,
A root of barren dryness,
No fragrance could exhale ;
But as I came to know Him,
His precious name grew sweet,
And, like a perfumed rainbow,
Love arched the mercy-seat.

At first, I saw no beauty,-
No captivating spell;
Felt no divine emotion
In my cold bosom swell:
But when, through beams of glory,
God shone in Jesus' face,
All other objects tarnished
Before His matchless grace.

I read that He was wounded,
And bruised upon the tree,
Yet felt no thrilling wonder,
As though He died for me ;
But since, oh, since I know it,
And saw Him bear my load,
I cannot cease from praising
My great redeeming God.

O Rose of rarest odor !
O Lily white and pure !
O chiefest of ten thousand,
Whose glory must endure !
The more I see Thy beauty,
The more I know Thy grace,
The more I long unhindered
To gaze upon Thy face.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII

PART I.-(Continued.)

The Throne in Heaven. (Chap. 4:1-3.)

We come, then, to our theme, the book of Revelation. Our glance at prophecy has been for the purpose of putting this last and fullest of all in connection with the earlier ones, that we might not make it of "private interpretation." And when we come so to connect it, we find unmistakable evidence that a large part of the book is occupied with that predicted last week of Daniel, the events of which we have been considering. That the last "beast" of Daniel appears again in Rev. 13:and 17:is acknowledged, and must be, by all. -But there is noticed as to it here, what history has made plain to us, that it was not to continue without interruption from its first commencement to its overthrow. It was to have its period of non-existence, and then come up again in greatly altered character as "from the bottomless pit." This is the blasphemous form in which we have seen it to end at the coming of the Lord ; and the exact time of its prevalence in this way is given us as in Daniel-"forty' and two months," or three years and a half (chap. 13:5). And again and again this period confronts us. In the eleventh chapter, we find it as the time of sackcloth testimony of the two witnesses; in the twelfth chapter, stated as in Daniel, as "time, times, and a half," and again as "a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days," as that of the woman's nourishment in the wilderness from the face of the serpent. Much before this also we hear of an immense company of Gentiles as " come out of the great tribulation" (chap. 7:14, R.V.-quite evidently that spoken of in Daniel and in Matthew, the only one that could be, in view of what is said there, announced as "the great" one. Thus from the seventh to the seventeenth chapters the last of the seventy weeks is clearly before us. But this implies, as we have seen, much. It shows that when this large portion of Revelation shall be fulfilled, the Christian dispensation will have passed away, Christians will be forever with the Lord, and the earthly people will be again those owned of Him, whatever the sorrows they may have yet to pass through, before their full blessing comes.

The appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven we find only in the nineteenth chapter, but then (as the apostle says,) "we shall appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). Our removal from the earth will therefore necessarily have taken place before :and thus he writes to the Thessalonians, that "the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God :and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with the Lord " (i Thess. 4:16,17).

Here it is plain how "those that sleep in Jesus God will bring with Him." There is no promiscuous resurrection of the dead; there is no picking out by judgment of sheep from goats, such as the twenty-fifth of Matthew very plainly teaches will take place when the Son of Man comes in His glory and be sitting on the throne of His glory. Here, on the contrary, we find but one company of raised and glorified saints caught up to meet and be with Him. Scripture is clear as to this blessed fact, which in itself affirms and emphasizes the gospel assurance that those who have Christ's word, and believe on Him who sent Him, shall not come into judgment. (Jno. 5:24, R. F.) This is, by such a text, made clear and certain enough.

But from this no one would understand that between this gathering up of the saints to meet the Lord and His appearing in glory with them there should be an interval of months and years of earthly history. Nor can one be blamed, therefore, for being slow to assent to such a statement as this. Yet it is the truth ; and one which can be perfectly well established from Scripture, although there is no single text which states it. And here is the place to give this some final consideration.

We have seen elsewhere that as the Old Testament ends with the promise of the " Sun of Righteousness," so the New Testament ends with that of the "Morning Star." Christ Himself is both, and in both His coming is intimated, but, as is plain, in very different connections. The sun brings the day, flooding the earth with light, and this is in suited connection with the blessing of an earthly people, whose the Old-Testament promises are (Rom. ix-.4). The morning-star heralds the day, but does not bring it:it rises when the earth is still dark, shining as it were for heaven alone. And this to us speaks of our being with Christ before the blessing for the earth comes.

In the promise to Philadelphia also we find the assurance, "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I will also keep thee out of the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Here, out of a universal hour of trial some saints at least are to be kept. How simply explicable this in their being taken out of the world to be with their Lord before the hour commences ! how difficult to understand in any other way !

Accordingly, in those pictures of the world's trial which we have had before us, we have had no trace of the presence of Christians. All, as we have seen, speaks of Jews and Judaism as once more recognized,-a thing inconsistent with the existence of Christians and Christianity at the same time. As long as the present gospel goes out, "they are enemies for your sakes." (Rom. 11:28.)

So also the antichristian snare, in the form it assumes, shows the same thing. Christ is looked for in the desert, or in the secret chambers, as appearing not from heaven, in the midst of the people; and the false Christ, when he comes, sits with divine honors in the temple of God.

Explicitly is it stated also in Isa. 60:, that when the Lord arises upon Israel, and His glory is seen upon them, "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples," a thing impossible if Christianity existed at the same time, yet perfectly plain in what we have been looking at. Indeed, the difficulty with these passages has been to realize the fact of such darkness as succeeding the present day of gospel light.

Again, the important scene in Matt, 25:, so misconceived by most interpreters even now, and for centuries taken as a picture of the general judgment, becomes thus perfectly intelligible, as it is only consistent with this view. It is the judgment of the living upon earth, after the Lord has come and set up His throne here; and the passage in Thessalonians, cited but a while ago, makes it absolutely certain that Christians will not be among the nations upon earth then. The dead are not in question either. There is no hint of resurrection, and they have their separate judgment, at the end of the thousand years of blessing, when the earth and the heavens flee away from before the face of Him that sits upon the throne (Rev. 20:12).

But if the Lord called up the saints to meet Him in the air, and then immediately came on to the judgment of the earth, there could be no "sheep" to put upon His right hand. Universal judgment alone could follow. The fact of an interval between these two, such as we have been considering, at once clears the whole difficulty.

But the most convincing proofs of such an interval we find in the chapters that are now to engage our attention. Coming as they do between the history of the dispensation with which the addresses to the churches have already made us familiar, and the prophecies of the last week of Daniel, which follow so promptly and occupy so much space in the latter portion of the book. All through the later addresses the announcement of the Lord's coming sounds with more and more urgency. In Thyatira, for the first time, they are exhorted, " Hold fast till I come." In Sardis, He is coming upon them as a thief, and they shall not know what hour He comes upon them. In Philadelphia, it is now, "I come quickly." And finally, Laodicea is ready to be spued out of His mouth, the last individual appeal being given, when the church as a whole has now rejected Him. In the fourth chapter, the "things that shall be after these" begin, and the apostle is at once caught up to heaven.

But we are now to proceed more leisurely. In so precious and wonderful a communication of divine grace we would gladly ponder every word, and allow nothing to escape us. But we are absolutely dependent upon the Spirit of Clod for aid, lest, after all, the very essence of them be lost. The various and contradictory interpretations that they have received may well teach us self-distrust, but not shake our confidence, that in proportion to our real simplicity and real desire to be taught of God, His truth will be discovered to us. He that seeks shall find. He will not for bread give us a stone, nor for a fish a serpent.

The "things that are" have come to an end. The voice that spake on earth' is silent, but presently resumes from heaven. "After these things, I saw, and, behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard, as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ' Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must come to pass after these.' "

Both the Common and the Revised Version have " hereafter." But this is vague. It would allow the prophecy that follows to be, after all, contemporaneous in its fulfillment with that of the addresses just completed. But the words are definite, and allow of no such idea. In the first chapter, the apostle had been bidden to " write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which shall be after these;" and now he is reminded that he is come to this distinct division of his prophecy-"the things which must come to pass after these." The prophecy is orderly and successive, at least thus far.

Looking at the addresses to the churches, therefore, as depicting the phases of the professing church during the present dispensation, the meaning of the words would be, " The things which must come to pass after the history of the Church is ended." If, then, such an interpretation of the two previous chapters is correct, the time we have reached is clearly enough defined. And how significant, at this point, the translation of the seer from earth to heaven ! The voice with its trumpet-call is the first voice which he had heard-the voice of Jesus. No longer occupied with His lamps of testimony upon earth, He calls His servant up to Himself above.

And "immediately," he says, "I became in the Spirit." The distinctness of the new beginning is evident. Just so had he been, rapt in this ecstatic state, when he had had the former vision. It had not continued throughout, but now began afresh, his whole being absorbed in that which the Spirit of God communicated. He is, as it were, not in the body, as another apostle says of visions that he had received, that whether he was in the body or out of the body, he could not tell. (2 Cor. 12:2):the Spirit of God was, so to speak, eyes and ears and all else to him.

And now by the Spirit he is rapt into heaven,-a new thing for a prophet, and as such, exceptional to John alone. Doubtless the heavens had opened before, even in Old-Testament times, though with reserve, and never to invite an entrance. Enoch, and afterward Elijah, had been taken there indeed, and comfort and blessing it was to know this. Still this was not an opening of it to men on earth. Heavenly visitants had appeared too among men, but they had no disclosures to make of the unseen sanctuary from which they came. Even in Job one might read also how the "sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them." And Micaiah at a much later day could say, "I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him, on His right hand and on His left." Ezekiel, moreover, after this, that " the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God." All this betokened, indeed, heaven's interest in earth, but it only serves to make evident the contrast with what we find here-a witness taken into heaven to bear testimony of what he found there.

The opening of the heavens is characteristic of New-Testament times. At the outset, the heavens are indeed, in the truest sense, opened when the Son of God lies in the manger of Bethlehem. And as He who reveals the Father is revealed, we are brought into communion with what spiritually constitutes heaven-with the Father and the Son. At the Lord's death, the vail of the sanctuary is rent asunder for us, and when He has ascended up, our Representative and Forerunner, the Holy Ghost sent down becomes in us the witness and earnest of heavenly things.

But the earnest shows that we have not yet possession, which John anticipatively brings us into. Paul also had been caught up into the third heaven-into paradise-and heard unspeakable things, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Cor. 12:4.) But John finds utterance:he carries his writer's inkhorn into heaven, and reports what it was he saw there. He is bidden "Write," lest in his entrancement he should forget it. And how has the power of these communications been felt by those who have become heirs since to what has been thus written! Even those that have known least, have they not felt much ? And how much more, then, should flow from deeper knowledge !

But then the character of this prophecy before us, in the very charm 'of its face-to-face vision, may assure us of what it speaks of and anticipates. It is our own call home this call of the prophet up to heaven, and how well it may thrill our hearts and gladden them as we listen to it!

Enter, then! Heaven is before us. Enter ! It is the sanctuary. Not speculation do we seek, but enjoyment- holy and hallowing enjoyment. Not a thing here forbidden to us, and not a thing upon which the lusts of the flesh can fasten ! To breathe this pure air, is to live indeed. To abide here is to make all the world can proffer an unmeaning emptiness, to brighten the dullest heart into glory, and make the tongue of the dumb to sing for joy.

Heaven! And the first thing the apostle sees is "a throne," and "One sitting on the throne."

It is the first necessity for all blessing, for, all stability, for all rest of heart. It is the assurance of order, of peace, of concord, of congruity :over all, a real, personal, living, and sovereign God. Not a democracy, but an absolutism; not laws which execute themselves, but the will of the All-wise, All-holy :fixed rule in free hands. It is this that sin would have overturned, and which has proved itself impossible to be overturned; whose eternity alone insures the absolute security of all else. Well may all crowns be cast before this throne, by which all are sustained and served. The sovereignty of God is surely the joy and triumph of every redeemed soul.

He who sits upon the throne is not and cannot be pictured, and the jasper and sardine stone to which He is compared have as yet yielded but little to the interpreter. As jewels, like those of the high-priest's breastplate, they represent, no doubt, the "Lights and Perfections" (Urim and Thummim) of God, unchanging, but seen, not in the inapproachable light itself, but in manifestations such as can, be given to His creatures, and which display to them a various beauty they could not otherwise enjoy. " God is light," and the "Father of lights." The one colorless beam, broken up into the various colored prismatic rays, clothes the whole earth with its beauty. And the precious stones enshrine and crystallize these various rays.

If the "jasper" here be rather the diamond, as many believe, then there does seem to be in it a most appropriate thought, and one it is hard to give up after having received it. The diamond is the brightest of gems, the nearest to the pure ray of light in its luster, the most indestructible in character,-eminently fitted (as one might think) to be a symbol of the glory of Deity. But these are not its chief points of significance after all. The diamond is, as every one knows, but crystallized carbon, which we find in a pure form as graphite, the black-lead of our pencils. Carbon exists in these so opposite conditions, the symbol of divine glory (as it might be) on the one hand might on the other be that of evil and ruin and sin. And has not divine grace wrought in the transformation of our ruined humanity into the brightest display of divine glory ? And could there be any thing of which we could be more fitly reminded here?* *Carbon is also the clement characteristic of all organic products; so that organic chemistry has been called " the chemistry of the carbon compounds." It is thus connected with living forms, whether vegetable or animal. And I add, though this be a distinct thought, that crystallization is, as it were, the organization of the mineral.*

God has forever displayed Himself in Christ, His perfect and glorious manifestation. He is " the effulgence of His glory, the express image of His substance." (Heb. 1:3.) It is not meant by that, what some have argued from it, that we shall see the Father only in Him. Scripture speaks of those who " in heaven always behold the face of the Father who is in heaven." (Matt, 18:10.) But the cross will not on that account lose its significance, nor the glory of the incarnate Son be the less needful for us.

And when we look on to the end of the book, and see the "city which hath foundations" in her eternal beauty, not only do we find the jasper as the first of these foundations, but the light-the luster-of the city also is "like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal." (21:2:)

This is at least all perfectly consistent. Its consistency and beauty may well plead for its acceptance by us, until, at least, something that more commends itself can be produced.

The "sardine stone," or rather "sardius," is our carnelian, a stone much prized by the lapidary, and especially in the east, its most valued form being an unmixed bright red. The association with the jasper or diamond would suggest an association of thought; the diamond flashing with the red hues of the carnelian would necessitate almost the idea of the cross. Incarnation and redemption unite to make known the sovereign God.

It is not an objection, I believe, that in the next chapter we find explicitly the Lamb slain. The connection there is different, and God is never weary of Christ. Here it is the One upon the throne who is declared; and apart from Christ He could not be declared to us. The full radiance of divine glory are thus in the jasper and the sardine stone, or, as we have taken them to be, the diamond and the carnelian. The connection of the two throws light upon each, and the truth of its interpretation must rest on its verisimilitude.

Thus the One who sits upon the throne is declared to us. It is the " God of our Lord Jesus Christ," perfectly known and alone revealed in Him. The throne is His throne; the supreme will and power are His :and this is what makes us delight in that supremacy. Absolute in power and control, there is no mere arbitrary will in Him. Omnipotence never acts but with omniscient wisdom, perfect righteousness, holiness, and love. His pleasure is good pleasure :" Worthy art Thou, O Lord," is the adoring cry of the hosts of heaven.

The One who sits upon the throne is disclosed and-characterized for our hearts before the throne is. And when we come now to the throne itself, we find as the first thing, what is addressed to our hearts no less, "a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." The natural and historical associations here are full of precious suggestions.,. The bow we all know as the token of God's covenant with the earth, and with every creature in it. The flood had just passed over the earth and desolated it, and now the sun was shining out in the retreating storm of judgment. God declares He will no more destroy, as He had destroyed. If He bring a cloud, it shall be for purification and blessing, not any more "a flood to destroy all flesh."

Where we see it now, the bow is used symbolically, of course, and therefore with a wider, deeper meaning. It is still of the earth it speaks, where alone storms are purificatory and for blessing; but these are no longer merely natural. It is not limited to this or that divine act, but characterizes the throne in its general action. Blessing for men, and rest of which the emerald speaks, with the suggestion of the springing grass after the rain, are to be accomplished; even the judgment maybe the necessary means of their accomplishment. And in this, too, God will manifest Himself in the glory of the light which He is, as the prismatic colors of the bow symbolically display it.

To those who realize the character of the period which follows the present one, nothing could be plainer than the language of this bow-encircled throne. God is now calling out for heaven the objects of His grace. And while He is doing this, the fulfillment of His promises as to the earth is suspended; the earthly people are set aside:it might seem as if He had forgotten that which fills the pages of the Old-Testament prophets. So much so, that as if in despair of their accomplishment, men would turn them all into figures of other things. The knowledge of dispensational truth, so little regarded even yet by most Christians, relieves the whole difficulty, and puts every thing into its own place. Ours is a heavenly calling; ours are "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 1:3.) When we are, according to His promise, gathered up to Him, then the Old-Testament promises will be fulfilled to Israel, to whom they belong (Rom. 9:4). and the predicted time will come when the "earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Heb. 2:14.)

For this the "sons of God," now in suffering and sorrow, must be revealed in glory when Christ our life shall appear, and we shall appear with Him in glory. " The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation should itself also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." (Rom. 8:19-21, R. V.)

The bow of promise for creation, girdling the throne of God in heaven, speaks, then, of God's covenant with the earth remembered in a way which goes far beyond the letter of it. He is going now to bring it into perpetuity of blessing through another judgment, in which His glory will be displayed in a peculiar way. It will soon be said among the nations that the Lord reigneth, and the world be established that it cannot be moved. " Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field exult, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy' before the Lord:for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth." (Ps. 96:10-13.)

( To be continued.)

3. THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM.

The mere expression, "keys of the kingdom," I shows clearly that there is a definite mode of entrance, and that the kingdom is not in its present form territorial, as the kingdoms of this world are. A Christianized country, for instance, is not by this, or any the more for it, a part of the kingdom of heaven. Men do not come into it by natural birth, as they do into these. There is a mode of entrance, a method of discipling, not in the hands of the men of this world, but in the hands of disciples only. There is a door by which to enter, and which is in their keeping.

Moreover it is a double door. There is not merely a key, but there are keys to it. We need not be afraid to insist upon the Lord's words in their full meaning; nay, we are bound to insist upon this. His words are precise, and require loyal acceptance; we must neither add to nor yet take from them.

This sets aside (as any sufficient application) what is often taken as explaining this commission to
Peter that he was the first to preach the gospel to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, and to the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius afterward. It does not take two keys to open the same door twice, that is plain. And the proclamation of the gospel to men outside is by itself no real admission of any. It is the offer of its blessedness, but men must be received in individually, and for this a distinct form of admission is prescribed.

We have seen that the Lord speaks of the key of knowledge, that the kingdom is a kingdom of the truth, its sphere that of profession, of discipleship; that people are discipled into it. But the key of knowledge is plainly only one key, and we need yet another before the door will open. The other we find in the commission given by the risen Lord to the eleven after His resurrection, in which He is about to ascend to the throne of the kingdom,- all authority given to Him in heaven and in earth; He instructs them as to discipling the nations:for so it really reads, " Go and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:19, 20).

Here there are two keys:"baptizing" and "teaching" are the joint methods of discipling. In the one we have the key of knowledge; in the other that which as the outward part authoritatively admits into the body of disciples upon earth. Without this latter there would be no proper recognition of the body as such, nor of individual relationship to it, nor representation of the King's authority on earth.

Baptism is "unto Christ" (Rom. 6:3), "unto the name of the Lord Jesus " (Acts 8:16), a putting on of Christ. (Gal. 3:27.) It is a separation to Him as Master and Lord, as by the cloud and the sea the Israelites were marked off as followers of their divinely-appointed guide,-"baptized unto Moses." (i Cor. 10:16.) " Unto the name of the Lord Jesus"-not "in"-defines it as the recognition of His Lordship-of the throne as His. Thus Paul also is exhorted by Ananias, " Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22:16.) Thus also in Eph. 4:5, " one Lord, one faith, one baptism," are joined together.

And thus as a" baptism unto death," Christ having died for us, it is a "being buried with Him by baptism unto death, …. that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead …. so also we should walk in newness of life." It is thus for us the passing out of the old into a new condition; a change in which our sins are washed away ; as the apostle, " Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;" and as Ananias, "Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins."

" Whose sins you remit they are remitted to them," the Lord had said before this ; words which cannot be applied, as some would apply them, to the preaching of the gospel. We do not, in the gospel, remit any one's sins. We do what is more blessed:we declare on God's part the terms upon which He remits. " Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts 13:38, 39.) It is the declaration of the forgiveness of a certain class, but it does not declare any one to be of that class, or to have received the forgiveness. And when a soul through grace believes the gospel, and receives forgiveness,-though it were I that preached it, it is still not from me that he receives it in any wise,-it is not I that remit. Here is a thing in which God and the soul meet personally, and not by representatives. And it is of the greatest possible moment to maintain this. It is just here that popery brings in her falsehoods, and builds the Church up into a barrier wall to shut God out into the old darkness.

Disciples have no place in the administration of such forgiveness. They are no more the channel than the source of it. God has not given this glory of His to another; and after this manner none can forgive sins but God alone. Let us only keep clear the distinction between heaven and the kingdom of heaven, and it will be impossible to make such mistakes as these. The kingdom of heaven is but the shadow of heaven upon earth. It witnesses to what is heavenly, finds its authority and sanction there, but remains still only the shadow. Useful and important in its place, it becomes only so much the more important that it retains that place. To confound the shadow with the substance is to degrade and displace both.

" I baptize with water," was John's answer to those who would have implied that, not being the Christ, to baptize was to invade His office. No use of water could possibly do that; and with water " Jesus Himself baptized not." No water can wash the soul; no spiritual transformation could be wrought by it. Divine power never works such marvels. The Creator uses His creation according to the sphere to which it belongs; for which He made it; and Creator and Redeemer are but one blessed God. The mysteries of Babylon the great are no Christian mysteries, but magic. The perversion of truth manifests them as not from above but from beneath.

When, therefore, baptism is spoken of as for the remission of sins, and when the Lord says," whose-soever sins you remit they are remitted unto them," it is certain that He does not mean that the water of baptism has power to wash the soul. What then is this remission? To understand this we must recognize it as the entrance into the kingdom, that in which one is received out of the outside world into the ranks of Christ's followers and subjects. It is plain that ideally the crossing of the line here is salvation-" the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us." (i Pet. 3:21.) To cross the line in spirit is true salvation, and to this grand truth the whole figure witnesses. The controversy with the world is for the rejection of Christ; submission to Him means the controversy over, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:21.) Yet the activity in salvation is all on His side; men baptize not themselves, but are baptized. And this is the confession of guilt, of being under death; it is burial, yet to Christ, to His death :there is the power of life, not in baptism, but in Him to whom we are baptized :" Buried with Him by baptism unto death, that, as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:4.)

There is thus really a witness to the gospel in baptism which is beautiful in its simplicity. No subtlety of understanding is needed for entering into it. No complexity of thought is here. Man's guilt and helplessness, and need of the work of Christ are vividly portrayed and powerfully enforced in it; while also the freeness and certainty of salvation are fully declared, and the blessing appropriated on God's part to the one received. Wilt thou have Christ for thy Lord? wilt thou indeed take thy place as His subject and disciple? Then here is remission of sins, here is salvation for thee, through the work of Christ which He accomplished for thee ; take thy place among His disciples a saved man!

It is to be no doubt if He receives thee. He casteth out none. As surely as thou comest thou art received. " Repent and be baptized every one of you unto the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts. 2:38.)

Thus the preaching of baptism is a clear, simple, straightforward gospel, with good holdfast for the fingers of drowning men. There are no refinements, and there is no doubt. So only could it represent the salvation of Christ, which is yea only, and not yea and nay,-rest, and self-torture.

But then it is evident also that this is but the shadow, the witness of salvation, not the salvation itself. Not all that are baptized are saved, alas! and this from no uncertainty in the gospel terms, but from uncertainty only as to the reality in the soul of the disciple. And in regard to many, how much uncertainty must there be. And this is expressly contemplated in those parables of the kingdom, in which the mysteries of it are shown forth. Ten virgins go forth alike to meet the Bridegroom; but five of them are wise, and five are foolish. The wedding is furnished with guests, but among them comes the one who has not on a marriage-garment. And in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, at the close, this very matter of forgiveness is taken up, and we are taught in the person of the pitiless servant that forgiveness in the kingdom is not the full and absolute forgiveness which the gospel preaches, but conditional upon character. If the professed disciple turn out to be not one in heart, then the remission grounded on the supposition becomes finally no true remission. The blessings of the kingdom are all conditional and reversible.

Baptism, then, is admission into the kingdom of Christ, out of a world of sin, lying in the condemnation of it. It is reception among those to whom as His own remission belongs. But, as administered by man, the blessings and privileges of it must be received by faith or not received. And this reconciles the fact of baptism as admission into it with what the Lord says as to the necessity of conversion:"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3.) This is indeed the necessity for the class to whom the Lord addresses Himself. Discipleship means no less than this, if it be real. To enter into the kingdom is not merely to come into it in an outward way, but to come into it in spirit also, to be really subjects and followers of the Lord of the kingdom.

But this does not at all imply that people cannot be in it except as converted. The parables that the Lord uttered as to it show the reverse of this. Tares are in it as well as wheat; foolish virgins, as well as wise; in the end of the age, the Son of Man will send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all that offend, and them which do iniquity. Thus the kingdom will be freed:but they must be in it to be gathered out.* *Our Lord's words to Nicodemus on the other hand are really different; and I do not ground this upon its being the " kingdom of God," of which He there speaks. While the kingdom of God gives a somewhat different aspect, it is true, it is nevertheless not a different thing. Parables of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew's gospel are in the other gospels parables of the kingdom of God, and among these are those of the leaven and the mustard-seed. But what makes the words of John's gospel different is that the Lord is speaking in them to a Jewish teacher with direct reference to Ezekiel's prophecy of Israel's conversion in the latter day. (Ezek. 36:24-26.) And this is how in fact they will be brought in, the sinners still remaining such being consumed out of their midst by judgment. Thus Isaiah speaks also of the time (chap. 4:3, 4,)-" And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem ; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion. and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning."

That the Lord's words had a wider application than to Israel I do not for a moment question, but it is of the kingdom in its future state He speaks, when that which offends, and those who do iniquity, are removed from it. A teacher in Israel should have known the absolute necessity of such a change as new birth for the enjoyment of the blessings the prophets had declared.*

But the breadth of the kingdom we must look at more fully now, and together with this the relation to what by many is strangely confounded with it, -the Church, of which the Lord speaks to the apostle in the words preceding those we have been seeking to explain.

(To be continued.)

THE ADDRESSES TO THE CHURCHES, Philadelphia :the Revival of the Word of Christ, and the Brotherhood of Christians. (Rev. 3:7-13.-Concluded.)

The next verse seems somewhat strangely to connect Philadelphia with Smyrna:" Behold, 1 will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." Here again comes before us that class through which Satan had wrought the downfall of the already declining Church. Judaism, set aside by God, is now one of Satan's best weapons and most subtle snares. Great Babylon has built her superstructure upon this foundation, and displaced with the ritualism, the sacerdotalism, and the legal-ism of an earlier time, the simplicity and open speech, the equal priesthood and completed sacrifice, the free grace and full salvation, of Christianity. It is not after all so strange, therefore, that if in Philadelphia we find the heart fresh awakened after Christ, His Word preached with fresh energy and held with more appreciation, on the other hand Satan's old attempt should be renewed. And this the words here seem to indicate. They assure us also, no doubt, that for the true Philadelphian it will end only in defeat, and the acknowledgment of their enemies that they are objects of Christ's special love, yet this does not assume that the onset will have no success. God permits these things for the trial of His own, and there was only One who could say, " The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me."

In fact, if we look at the history of the movement which has been for years going on, we shall find that along with revived study of the Word, and energetic evangelizing, and the drawing of Christians to one another, there has been an undoubted revival of ritualism also, and that not in Rome where it never had slept, but in Protestantism. The Puseyite or Tractarian movement, as it used to be called, had all the freshness and energy of a revival, and its success was marked. At the present time, it is less noted only because its influence is become a thing of course; and Protestant Episcopalianism is largely leavened with it.

This may be thought outside Philadelphia, according to our definition of it, but it is one of the things it is called to meet. Nearer home, however, in less developed forms, the same spirit is manifesting itself. The fruits of many a revival and separation from the church-establishments of Protestantism have been blighted by a spirit of conformity to that which had been left. The chapels have become churches, the ministry a priesthood, the congregations multitudinous and indiscriminate under this influence; and the desire for Christian union has been perverted into a desire for denominational union, a more or less ignoring of differences which were once matters of conscience for the soul, but have become rather matters of dispute left to the champions of conflicting creeds.

Even for those most widely removed (as it might seem) from all this, the same influences are at work, and should be no less dreaded. Ecclesiasticism, clerisy, the substitution of corporate for individual conscience,-these are all elements of a return-movement, the ebb of the tide which once seemed as if it could not so soon fail. But they are elements also of that Judaism with which man's mind, if it slip away from God, so readily assimilates. In fact it is all that is natural to man, and of himself he never gets beyond it.
Let us take heed, then, that we be true Philadelphians. Tested we shall be assuredly all round, and in different forms if the spirit be not different. The Word here is the assurance, is it not? for the faith that might quail and question as the results of the trial become apparent. Not now, but by and by, things shall be manifested, and where Christ's heart is shall come out openly.

Meanwhile there is another promise:"Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

Here is still the keeping of Christ's word:all blessing lies in the track of obedience; but it is now a peculiar character of that Word, and as manifesting a character of Christ Himself,-His patience, or endurance. It was of course a character of His on earth; it is also a character that He is manifesting where He sits now, upon the throne of heaven. He has but to ask, and the rod of iron shall be His to dash to pieces all opposition, like a potter's vessel. Yet He waits; not unobservant of the trials of His saints, not surely as unsympathetic with them. But He waits, that God's purpose may be fully wrought and the discipline of His people fully accomplished. It seems to me another mark of Philadelphia herself being tested by that of which the previous verse has spoken. They have needed patience:they have learnt it in the apprehension of that patience of His who Himself exercises it, with power in His hands which could change the face of things as in a moment. They have kept that word of His patience,-feeling the trial, but learning the consolation. Then, when the hour of trial
for the dwellers upon earth shall come, they shall be out of it! Suited all this is, surely. And that word even, " dwellers upon earth," suits exactly the Judaized synagogue of Satan of which the Lord has spoken. For the expression has a moral force, like that where Pergamos is described as "dwelling where Satan's throne is." The hour is the hour of terrible tribulation, which, involving Israel first (Matt. 24:21), will extend also to the Gentiles (Rev. 7:14, R. V.), and reap with its scythe of destruction the tarefield of Christendom; God's wheat having been removed from it.

Into this time of judgment no saint, indeed, of the present time can come. And this has been with some an objection to such an interpretation of the words before us. But it would be only be that, if they were to be confined to Philadelphia, which is not the case. The promise to Smyrna is equally such to every child of God that ever was. Will any of these be hurt of the second death? Assuredly no; and yet not the less suited to the sufferers in Smyrna was that word of comfort. So here:doubtless God's people have all been in various ways made to apprehend the word of Christ's patience, and will be kept out of the hour of trial for apostate Christendom.

But the word is suited especially here, because that which separates the saints from it, and from the possibility of sharing its judgments, is at hand. More decisively now He announces, " I come quickly." The day of grace is running out with the day of patience. Soon it shall be Christ's presence and glory. The centuries of delay have come to years, the years are soon to be months, the months days, the days moments. "I come quickly:" this is to be shown in its power for the soul by its keeping the exhortation, "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

But all shows it to be a time of drift,-a time of declensions as well as revivals:overcomer is he only who holds fast. The Spirit of God moving, the Word manifesting its power, conscience responding; yet every where the ebb after the flow, the trial which sifts, separates, individualizes. By and by comes the terrible back-flow of Laodicea. Think not Philadelphia is a haven of refuge where we may lie at anchor and never feel it. Not so,- oh, not so:this is the fatal delusion of Laodicea itself:"Hold that fast which thou hast!" The tug, if it has not come, is coming:hold thou fast!

But to what?-hold what fast? The word, and the name, and the patience of Christ. Not the word of even the leaders of God's raising up. The truth must ever commend the man, never the man the truth. One great danger is, lest, having begun with the former principle, we slip into the latter. Even the truth they teach is not truth received till it has been gotten at the Master's feet and in communion with Himself,-till you can hold it, not with the eyes shut, but with eyes open,-till you can maintain it for truth against the very instrument used of God to give it you, if need be. " If WE, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Then, HOLD fast! When it is no longer a question if it be the truth, but only of its consequences. Hold fast:though those who have held it with you, or before you, give it up; though it separate you from all else whomsoever; though it be worse dishonored by the evil of those who profess it; though it seem utterly useless to hope of any good from it:in the face of the world, in the face of the devil, in the face of the saints,-"hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown!"

For many a crown has been lost, and many a crown will be lost, if the Lord should tarry. Yet he who will hold fast shall find Christ's arms underneath him, Christ's hands upon his hands. He shall not only keep, he shall be kept; in the might. of Christ's victory he shall stand, and the crown given he shall cast before the Giver of it as a trophy of His own conquest, and the fruit of His grace.

" Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God; and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and I will write upon him My new name." A fixed eternal place in the sanctuary of God; identification with the display of God as revealed in Christ forever; identification with the abiding-place of His affections, in which heaven and earth shall meet at last in an eternal embrace of love; identification with the manifestation of Christ, in His new eternal relationship to this whole scene:- this is what seems to be expressed in the promise here. But who shall give it proper utterance? What an end for the weak one who under trial still holds fast to Christ and His word! How blessed the stability of this scene by which He would establish our hearts amid the perpetual flux by which we are surrounded. How sweet the identification with Himself of the feeble one who has but owned on earth the authority of Him whom heaven and earth will own in joy in but a moment! It is a text to be expounded by the Holy Ghost to the heart of the overcomer, rather than to be spread out upon the page here. It is a sanctuary word, and the ear receives but a little thereof.

(To be continued.)

(Eph. 4:3.-Continued.)

The unity of the Spirit is to be kept, then, only by an earnest, active linking ourselves with what is of God among His people, with a steady refusal of all that is not of Him, however inseparably connected with it may seem. With a whole heart for the people of God, just on that very account an intense opposition to all that hinders the full subjection to Christ's claim upon them -to holiness as measured by the Word, and therefore to fellowship in divine things among them. In maintaining this, what need of "all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love"! We are not permitted simply to withdraw ourselves, and escape from a conflict in which the strife is for men against themselves. Love, while it abides, whether Godward or man-ward, will not suffer us to with draw ourselves. " The whole Church of God for God,"-this and nothing less must be our banner, even though nothing seems so hopeless:for in truth we shall never see it until that day when the Lord's voice shall call us up out of the earth-mists that surround us, to unite us forever in the clear bright sky above. What we want to realize is, that the unity of the Spirit means activity, not passiveness; that to keep it there must be an exercised conscience, as well as a heart aglow with spiritual energy,-love, the spring of power, of courage, and of endurance,- clear-sighted, as true love ever is. How blessed and peaceful a path after all, in fellowship with and under the control of the almighty Worker, upon whom all things wait, and who is working out unfailingly the blessing of His own! Faith with the light of this triumph in its heart finds in its way no invincible difficulty, and can go forward, confident and assured.

The method of compromise for the sake of union can never, it is plain, be taken or acquiesced in by one who would keep the unity of the Spirit. Liberty for the conscience, of course, there must be, which compromise forbids. We can neither bind our own nor that of others, for conscience owns but one Master. In our day, the want of unity is being felt increasingly, and efforts after union are the order of the day. "Union is strength " it is felt; but just here lies a serious danger for the soul. " In quietness and confidence shall be your strength " is the Lord's word to us. Organization and machinery are substituted for the work of individual faith and conscience. The weakness is thus not felt, to which God is so absolute a necessity. Conscience finds other masters, or expediency dictates subjection to them. " Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" becomes, as of old, the fashion, even though it be more openly owned than of old that they are but commandments of men.

There is indeed one organization, and but one,- "one body; "there is one power for its growth and edification, and but one,-"one Spirit;" and there is "one Lord" alone. To add to these is but, in the spirit, of it, if it be not ignorance, rebellion. The addition is a fatal subtraction. And that which was to help becomes an opposition to God, and an open door for the enemy. The little seed may thus become a tree, but the birds of the air will lodge in the branches of it.

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. 8:9.)

After ten days of special meetings in a town in New Zealand, I was on the way to the railway station with my luggage. A man, working in a garden where I was to pass, observed me approaching. Quickly making his way to the fence, he reached over his hand, saying, " Let me shake hands with you." " Most gladly," I replied, as it then came before me that he had been to the meetings, though we had not had the opportunity of conversing before.

"Man," he said, grasping me very warmly by the hand, "I've lost seven years' enjoyment."

" How is that?" I inquired.

He went on to tell how he had been converted seven years before. He had felt and known that it was a real change, but he was also conscious that he had been occupied with his feelings, and had never enjoyed peace. His time had been taken up with trying to hold on to what he had received, lest it should slip, and he should fall away. He knew that he had something not known before, though it was an unsatisfactory experience. He prayed, read, watched, attended meetings, always fearing that unless he was careful and persevered he would lose the blessing. But he said,-

" I have been hearing you at these meetings, and I now see that it is what God has said about Christ, and I'm a free man."

The simplicity, the earnestness, the gladness of the man give his words more than usual significance. A little reflection upon them readily suggests some very practical lessons as to how the gospel ought to be preached, heard, received, and enjoyed.

Much that is preached fails to bring out what one might call the divine side of the gospel. Too frequently what is heard is much more what might suit man rather than God. Human need is more considered than divine holiness. What the sinner needs and receives on believing is pressed so much, that what was needed for and rendered to God, in the atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ, is frequently overlooked. But self-interest often plans and prepares its own punishment. Being absorbed with the thought of the sinner's need, we may forget or even fail to take in the importance of what is due to God. The prodigal thought of bread and a servant's place instead of what alone would suit a son with the father. But hearers naturally fall in with what is put to suit themselves. Yet such preachers and hearers have often such poor times of it that it would almost seem as if the blind had been leading the blind, and both had fallen into the ditch. They have not only lost enjoyment, like the young man mentioned, but have had the positive misery of having to say-

" "Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord, or no,
Am I His, or am I not?"

A live sheep bleating in a ditch, or in a bog, or in a thicket, is better than a dead lion. The young man had better have lost seven years' enjoyment than to have been all that time dead in trespasses and sins. But there is a more excellent way than being left to either alternative. The full gospel may be told out and received with its proper results of life, peace, liberty, and enjoyment. It need not only be that the sinner should come forth like Lazarus, " bound hand and foot with grave clothes;" the Lord still delights to say, " Loose him, and let him go."

What the young man heard, what set him free, was that God had considered and undertaken the work that was needed, not merely to satisfy the sinner, but what was needed to satisfy God. In giving His Son, and in accepting the work accomplished by Him in offering Himself without spot to God, it is evident that God satisfied Himself. He has shown it by rending the vail from top to bottom, and by raising Christ to His own right hand.

He has said it by sending the Holy Spirit to testify concerning all that believe, as He does, saying, " Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (Heb:10:17.)

God knew best-yea, He knew perfectly, what sins deserved. He also knew what would suit His own holiness and righteousness. God alone could authoritatively set forth what would maintain His own honor and glory. It will yet be seen that " He hath done this." (Ps. 22:31.) Then it should be clear at a glance that if what is needed for God, on account of sin, is provided and accepted by God, there can be no doubt about the need of the sinner being met. Human things are poor, feeble illustrations of such a divine transaction. But say the utmost demands of creditors are satisfied by one of the partners of the firm paying the sum required from his private to the firm's business account, the debtor should be satisfied when he is informed of this, and receives the receipted account. One who was his creditor, as his friend, has satisfied the legal claims of the firm. The friend's position as a partner in the firm, is a guarantee that the arrangement is satisfactory. The debtor will surely then fall in with and rejoice in the settlement. The friend may be poorer as to his private means, but the firm has not sustained any loss, and so a clear receipt can be given consistently. The debtor has simply to hear, read, believe, and give thanks for being righteously cleared through the grace of his friend. It is an illustration of grace reigning through righteousness. (Rom. v, 21.)

In some such manner, where the young man had been present, I had been showing that God had estimated what was needed, not only on the human, but on the divine side, and had provided His own Lamb, and had accepted, as He surely would accept, the sacrifice of His own provision. All had hitherto been done between Christ and God. This being so, God was free, in harmony with all that He is, as a holy and righteous God, to proclaim forgiveness to sinners, to justify him that believeth in Jesus. (Rom. 3:26.) When the blood had been shed on the great day of atonement, it was first presented to God by being put on the mercy seat once, and then before the mercy seat seven times. (Lev. 16:15.) When God's nature and claims were met, the needs of the people were more than covered.

Thus, what God has provided, and found in, and said about, the work of Christ, is the good news announced to sinners. Indeed, it is what God is as revealed in grace that needs to be proclaimed and believed to give settled peace.

Then it is no longer merely a question of your doing, your feeling, or your realizing. If these things were true, if you felt all right within yourself, if you could conclude that you had attained to an improved state of soul, this would be good news about you. But that would not be the gospel. The gospel is about what is outside yourself -it is good news about God. It is not what you are to God, but what God is to you, now that Christ has died and risen. If not to be disturbed, this must be the ground of your peace. The One who thought, the One who wrought, the word that declares that all is done, are all outside of, and apart from, yourself, Then peace with God is not, in the first instance, a question of your experience. If one may so speak, God is telling you what has been the experience of Christ, and the experience of God, in connection with the accomplishing, and the acknowledging of the accomplishing, of a perfect atonement. It is then for you to hear, and hold to be true, what God has said about Christ. Bowing to it as the testimony of God that cannot lie, and as one who will not deceive, you may gladly say, if you cannot sing:-

" Rest, my soul the work is done,
Done by God's eternal Son;
This to faith is now so clear,
There's no room for torturing fear."

It was to this conclusion that the young man had come by hearing the gospel otherwise than he was wont to hear it preached. He learned that God was satisfied. Now he saw that his acceptance did not depend on how he felt, or how he held on. In all such thoughts he had himself before him. His mixed-up ideas as to the way he was accepted, and the means by which he was to be kept in God's favor, had caused continual anxiety. While believing on Christ to begin with, he was trying to believe in himself to go on with, and so it was no marvel that he had lost seven years' enjoyment. But with his newly-found enjoyment, instead of growing careless as to how he acted, he had a new and powerful motive for seeking to please the Lord. Instead of being on himself, his eye was now on the Lord; his ear was open unto God ; his thoughts about acceptance, instead of turning in upon his feelings, were governed by the thoughts of God about Christ as written in the Word. He now saw that, rather than it being a question of his having rightly accepted Christ, it was a question of God having accepted Christ, as having done the work for him, and having seated Christ at his own right hand in token of being perfectly satisfied with the work of atonement. Indeed, as we have seen, God had satisfied Himself. Hearing this, believing this, the young man troubled about peace was satisfied. He then knew the truth, and the truth set him free. He might well say with joy and gladness, " I am a free man."

If not before now, why should you not see and say the same? You need not lose years, or months of enjoyment. You may have settled peace, blessed rest, even now. You may be free indeed. You may then have leisure to be occupied with the Person who has saved you, so as to have the heart filled with praise, and your lips opened to commend your Redeemer. Then, as there is no longer any need for the miserable work of trying to hold on, your hands will be free for the service of the Lord. Yielding yourself up to Him, you may say, "O Lord, I am Thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds."
W. C. J.

There are ten millions of souls in Mexico alone, without speaking of regions vast and populous of Central and South America, who are without the gospel, save in a very limited degree.

Mexico has had no reformation. Romanism has reigned supreme over heart and conscience, body and soul, and left with scarce a ray of light these millions, save as Protestants have done some of love's labor among them. God has, in His wisdom, and with purposes of grace, smitten the power of the pope of Rome, and through liberalism, (often another name for infidelity,) opened the door for the proclamation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Statistics, lately published, give as the number of workers, of all shades of opinion, foreign and native missionaries, schoolmasters, etc., 442; and of communicants, 12,135. Some devoted men, according to the light they have, are found in the ranks of these workers, whom Christ will reward in that day, and of whom we dare not say they do not serve Him, though they follow not us, nor are in, as far as ecclesiastical position goes, the truth. All honor to those who with less light have risked their lives to make Christ known! Of these, 62 have won the martyr's crown, while others still languish in prison upon false charges, in places where Rome has most power left her. On the other hand, some unworthy men and means have been used, which has of course hindered the work. These millions know, for the most part, absolutely nothing but certain Christian names which are connected, in their minds, with superstition and falsehood, and which convey to them no fragment even of the truth of the gospel. Purgatory is their expectation after death, out of which the prayers and masses of the priests alone can deliver, and this only obtainable through the last cent extortion can wring from them, though it be the bread of their children, which yet Rome calls them to give up in exchange for her lies.

(At a place in New Mexico, the native missionary read Jno. 14:, and his hearers ridiculed it, and said, " We did not know He had a Father;" and went to him afterward and asked what he meant by saying His Father had a mansion?)

When the prophet was convicted deeply of his sin in the presence of the glory of Christ, and the live coal from the altar had touched his lips and cleansed them, he heard a voice saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" The ready answer came, "Here am I:send me." Paul gives us as the spring of his service this:"The love of Christ constraineth us," etc. How many who have learned that to give their hearts to God is not the gospel, who yet have not practically learned what Paul writes of the Macedonians, viz., " They first gave their own selves to the Lord." Neither Isaiah nor Paul kept back from the Lord what was His by the double right of creation, and what was infinitely more costly-redemption.

Much of the sorrow and division so ripe among saints to-day has its root in the spirit of the world, which has had so large a place in the church.

The mass of the population round us has had and refuses the truth. Where this obtains, God commonly sends a famine of the Word. The ten millions in Mexico have had no such trial, and are in danger of learning the corruption and infidelity of apostate Christendom before they hear the truths of redemption and the love of God. Who will help tell them of Him who came to seek and save what was lost? and who has left behind those wonderful words for us to reflect on, " There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.""And how shall they hear without a preacher" that gospel which brings "repentance unto life"?What I have written is with no desire to distract from their work the Lord's servants laboring in other fields. Still less to urge any to go unsent where disaster and defeat at the hands of the enemy will meet them as quickly as any where, and perhaps in a worse way. But are there none who are holding back from what the Lord has laid upon them, and who would do well to search their hearts as to this, and seek His mind? The day, one hopes, is not far distant, if the Lord tarries, when the difficulties which still hamper the work will be further relaxed. What is intended by the reform laws as a check upon popery hinders also the progress of the truth, undesignedly. But the popish effort to regain control will probably lead to a further blow at her power, and the removal of the restrictions upon the efforts of others. May we not also pray for a fresh working of the Holy Spirit of God, to cause the seed sown to spring up,-"to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." Robert T. Grant.

El Paso, Texas, May 17th, 1888.

THE ADDRESSES TO THE CHURCHES, Sardis:Sleeping Among the Dead. (Rev. 3:1-7 A few words now about another thing. If the Church reigns in the absence of Christ, what then? Why, then there must be something representing Him down here;-He must have a vicar. He is not present (even the world cannot mistake that), except spiritually. He is at God's right hand. That is the common faith of Christianity, and it is the faith even of Rome. Although, in spite of that, her altars are continually proclaiming Him corporally present, the faith of Christianity is that Christ is away.

But a visible kingdom requires a visible head; and I need not tell you that such they have given it. The pope is, for Rome, Christ's vicar; and this is only the natural development of the thought of church-government which historically preceded and led on to it, and which extends far beyond Rome. Presbyterianism, prelacy, popery, are but three steps in the same direction. Apostles are no more; and the Church is orphaned, if not governed in a visible manner. Hierarchical government in some form is a necessity to it.

Now the Lord has indeed a Vicar during His absence-a perfect, infallible Guide for His people, as well as a guide-book absolutely perfect. The Church has not only a perfect body of discipline, but One also who is the Interpreter and Administrator of it. It is the characteristic of God's people that " as many as are led by the Spirit of "God, they are the sons of God." So distinctive and so wonderful a blessing is the presence of the Holy Ghost with us now, that, although the disciples in our Lord's day were blessed, by the fact of His presence with them, beyond all the generations previous, yet He could say to them, " It is expedient for you that I go away:for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you."

His presence in the believer makes even his body the temple of the Holy Ghost. So His presence in the church makes it also "the temple of the living God." Looking at the Church, again, as the body of Christ, He is the one Spirit animating the body. As all the members move under the control of the spirit in the natural body, so in the body of Christ also:if the members do not understand and move in harmonious subjection to the spirit, we speak of it as disease; and it is not less, but more truly, so in the body of Christ.

If we open the Acts, we shall find every where His presence-greater than apostles, higher than the highest there. From the day of His descent at Pentecost, He is supreme over all; and that supremacy becomes the harmony of action, the unity of spirit in the lower sense. Sovereignly, He calls instruments as He will, and as sovereignly uses whom He calls. " Separate Me Barnabas and Saul," He says to the prophets and teachers at Antioch, "to the work whereunto I have called them. . . . And they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed into Seleucia." How strange to read as power conferred on man to convey office what is really the naming of individuals by the Spirit Himself, as called and sent forth by Him:one of them being the man who asserts his own apostleship to be, "not of men, nor by man"!
" Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia, . . . they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not.""And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days; who said to Paul by the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem." Not ordinarily, indeed, perhaps not often, was the bidding of the Spirit expressed as audibly; but the manner of communication was but circumstantial, and not of the essence of the matter. He was present, Comforter, Guide, Teacher, Witness; Spirit of the body, " dividing to every man severally as He will;" a divine Person, with divine power and divine authority.

Yet unseen! I grant the fatal flaw in all this for most. The Bible they can see, but it is not definite enough. The Spirit of God they cannot see, and, alas! cannot believe in, in a practical way. " Whom the world cannot receive," says the Lord Himself, of the Holy Ghost, "because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." And when the line between the Church and the world is gone, who can wonder that this unbelief should be permeating the mass of what is professedly Christ's? It is not only Rome that refuses to the blessed Spirit the place He has come to fill. The unbelief which has denied the sufficiency of Scripture, and supplemented it by creeds which come soon to supplant it, has denied in the same way the sufficiency of the Holy Ghost, and supplemented His-authority with hierarchical governments to which (whatever the theory) He is practically unnecessary.

If you ask people what they mean by " church-government," you will get various answers, no doubt; but they will all agree substantially in one thing. That one thing is, in an omission of what is, indeed, the key-stone of the arch. They will tell you, some, that they believe in an episcopal form of government, some a presbyterian, some a congregational. And if you ask them further, Where do they put the Holy Ghost? you will find the mass of people even denying any special presence of the Holy Ghost as characterizing this dispensation. They will tell you (so far, truly,) that the Spirit of God has always been acting in the world, from the creation of it; that the new birth has always been His work, from Abel, or from Adam, to this time. They believe, too, in certain special gifts at the day of Pentecost, and for some time thereafter. A distinctive "coming" in the place of Christ, a coming so important in character that it was expedient for Christ to go away that we might have it, they do not understand and do not believe in. One well-known man, an evangelical divine, Dr. Hugh McNeile, of Liverpool, when he had to admit that a personal "coming" of the Holy Ghost after the ascension of Christ was taught in the Word, could only account for it by the supposition that during the Lord's lifetime upon earth all the operation of the Spirit was limited to Himself alone, so that the three and thirty years of our Lord's presence were years in which no conversions could take place at all,-a barren time in the world's history, a unique and utter desolation otherwise of spiritual influences!

And thus you will find that the practical faith in the Holy Ghost's presence now is scarcely faith in a Person. It is " influence," like rain, or dew, or gentle breeze,-and these are true and scriptural figures so far, but quite impersonal. They talk of a "measure of the Spirit," and every fresh stirring of heart they find is a fresh " baptism " of the Spirit. The evident and necessary result is that they lose the first requisite for faith in Him as One come down to take charge for Christ on earth, to dwell as God in the house of God, to animate and govern the body of Christ, as the spirit in man guides and governs the natural body.

Hence church-government, in people's minds, has nothing to do really with His presence here. Bishops, priests, and deacons may need, and of course do need, His influences. So, in theory, does the pope. But practically the ordering of things is (within certain limits, whether of church-tradition or of Scripture, so far as Scripture is supposed to serve,) in human hands, and subject to human wills. "The Church has power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith." " And those [ministers] we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work BY MEN who have public authority given unto them in the congregation to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard."But the Holy Ghost may not have " called or sent" them! Well, that, of course; and that is provided for:for "although in the visible church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and sacraments, vet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in Christ's, and DO minister BY HIS COMMISSION AND AUTHORITY, we may use their ministry both in hearing of the Word of God and receiving of the sacraments "!!

Thus they may have Christ's commission although the Holy Ghost hath not "called or sent" them:Christ and the Holy Ghost are made to be at issue, and the Church can go on ordering and ordaining in despite of the Spirit Himself!

And this is order; while those who desire to yield subjection to the Word and Spirit of God alone are convicted of being rebels against proper authority, and sure to end in confusion and (as some have said,) in " atoms "! Yet faith will follow where God leads, owning indeed that in His path all will be confusion that is not subjection; and that, leave Him out, we at least have no resource. Let it be so:we will abide the issue.

But let us contemplate a little while now the other side of things. We have had before us what is intensely sorrowful, more provocative of tears than Jezebel's corruption. There, the very malignity of the evil roused the whole soul against it:here, there is the fruit of what was in the beginning a movement of God. He can speak of what they had seen and heard, and exhort to hold it fast. There are still "things that remain," although "ready to die." And how can we but sorrow intensely over what was so fair in its earliest promise, and received its baptism in the blood of martyrs ?

Yet the word to the overcomer, once again recurring here, comforts us with its recurrence. It links us, if we have ears to hear, with the same little remnant that has ever been finding its way, through storm and flood, to Him from whose love neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword can separate, and in which they have approved themselves, through Him, more than conquerors. The overcoming may be now in a new sphere, and separation may have to be from brethren, in some sense, of a common faith, heirs of great names in faith's records. Yet, in the overcoming, only over-comers are their true successors. Not those who, in our Lord's days, built the sepulchers of the prophets, represented them, or were linked with them, in His account, but those whom He sent forth to be persecuted by these same admirers of antiquity.

And God must teach us independence, even of one another,-that rightful independence which springs from real and lowly dependence upon Him. In His presence, what were even the greatest of His followers? How can I say to another, "Rabbi, Rabbi," when I must take the honor from Him that I deck another with? If I had not Him, it were lowliness; if I have Him, it is dishonor to Him.

It is not schism, this separate path, when not my own will leads me, but His Word and Spirit! It is not separation in heart from brethren, if Christ be dearer to me still than they. Nay, love to them approves itself only thus, as the apostle teaches us, " when we love God and keep His commandments." (i Jno. 5:2.)

Faith's victories are not in applause wrung from a multitude, but in the path of One, true Joseph, separated from His brethren; and God has overruled the presence of evil (which, I need not say, He has not caused) to the giving us a path, at least in its circumstances, the more Christlike. We are not left to the subjection to evil:He calls us to rise above it. The difficulties of the path are only to carry us through them all. Every encouragement throughout these epistles is held out simply to the overcomer. The Lord give us only the needed energy. The time is short:the end is at hand. The grace that is now sufficient for all daily need will soon be manifested in the crowning of the conquerors. Then those that are poor shall have the kingdom; the mourners shall be comforted; the meek shall have the inheritance; the hungerers and thirsters after righteousness shall be filled; above all, the pure in heart shall see God- the God whom sin for the time has banished from the earth He made.

(To be continued.)

NOTES ON PROPITIATION

Q. 37.-"The spirit in which the article in Help and Food for September introduces the subjects of 'Priesthood and Propitiation' is very commendable. As one who has had much exercise as to these questions, and not yet clear, I make some notes, more in the way of inquiry than in the spirit of controversy, and more as looking into than teaching on the subjects.

" In the article, it is asked, ' What was it to make propitiation?' It is said to be 'appeasable'-'satisfaction.' Rom. 3:25 is quoted (R. F.), 'A propitiation through faith, by His blood.' This 'shows what propitiates.' It is the blood. This is very distinct. In what follows, where it shows that we have 'only to substitute propitiation for atonement] things are not to me so clear. It looks rather like a begging than a solving of the question. But let us test it. The scape-goat is ' presented alive before the Lord to make propitiation with him.' Now we have it from Scripture that it is the blood that propitiates. Then the death of the victim must have taken place before the blood is obtained. This animal is alive,-there is no blood shed, hence this is propitiation without blood. Does this not show that the substitution of ' propitiation ' for 'atonement' will not answer? Is the one term the real equivalent of the other? Is 'atonement' not a generic, and ' propitiation' not rather a specific, term ? That is, does ' atonement' not apply to all in Lev. 16:, while ' propitiation ' only applies to one element-the presentation of the blood on the mercy-seat ? It seems simplest to think of propitiation when that which propitiates is actually applied to the place of propitiation. Then, strictly speaking, if this is so, we would have propitiation only when these two things are brought together. Then propitiation would not be made 'both in the holiest and outside of it,'and certainly not by the scape-goat. It would be made in the holiest, on the mercy-seat alone.

"Now as to the antitype. The article says, 'Let us remember, then, the wrath is borne, exhausted, before He dies. The blessed Substitute has been presented to God as that. Sin laid on Him by Jehovah as such, wrath poured out, an actual dealing of God with His soul in view of sin ; and that is ended, the burden is removed; …. Thus He can say, ' It is finished ;' for though He had to die, death is nothing now. Needed for atonement as the governmental penalty of sin, He can meet it with the weight off His spirit, for the cup He feared is drained."

"Then, bearing in mind that it is the blood that propitiates, and that the mercy-seat, not the altar, is the propitiatory in the wrath-bearing as just described, there is no blood, no mercy-seat, hence no propitiation. ' The life of the flesh is in the blood,' so can it be said that there is blood till the life is taken, or given up? 'Without shedding of blood is no remission.' But we are told of 'wrath poured out,' 'the burden in this respect removed,' and that 'death is nothing now.' Then we have 'appeasal'-propitiation-before death, without blood, apart from the mercy-seat, and outside the sanctuary. But we have seen that it is the blood that propitiates ; that, as the life is in the blood, death is necessary; that the mercy-seat is the propitiatory ', and that is inside the sanctuary. These seem fatal objections to the paper.

" It is asked, as to the sprinkling of the blood on the altar after it has been sprinkled on the mercy-seat, ' Is this, too, for the acceptance of the blood a second time? And if not, why, then, the first ? How is this expressed in the sprinkling of the mercy-seat, as it is not expressed in the sprinkling of the altar ?' One might regret and indeed object to the reasoning, yet reply that the mercy-seat is the propitiatory, which the altar is not. The former was God's throne, which the latter was not. This makes a decided difference.

" Then the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy-seat was not always associated with entrance into the holiest. The idea of access to and acceptance with God, as usually connected with propitiation, seems to be rather overlooked in the paper. The case of the publican, as quoted, indeed, is in point:' God, be propitiated unto me a sinner' gives the thought of acceptance before God on His throne. This important feature drops out of view rather when propitiation is connected with the altar, and also when viewed as taking place before the death on the cross.

"The question of the high-priest one may leave, as the paper is to be continued; but so far, it does not clear me on the important subject of propitiation."- W. C. J.

Ans.–I am unfeignedly thankful for our brother's communication. The Word is able to resolve all questions as to its own teaching, and on our part we ought to be able to submit all our own views to the test of the Word. Nor is this at all what can be rightly termed a fundamental doctrine. Where Christ's blessed work upon the cross is owned on all sides as that which alone brings us to God, a difference of understanding as to some lesser points cannot be fundamental. And it is well if examination of the subject leads to a clearer realization of this. Scripture is plain as to it. While it speaks as clearly as possible of the sacrificial work of Christ as the only resting-place of the soul before God, it leaves many a thing as to it of .great importance to be learned individually as we go on with God. To raise the cry of "fundamental error" wherever a doctrine dissented from relates even to fundamental truths is itself a grave mistake, and tends only to prevent a fair and full investigation of the matter. It acts upon many true souls by their fears, and like the cry of "heresy," is often the resort of weakness and ignorance merely. If there be fundamental error involved, we are in duty bound to show it not only to be " error," but to be "fundamental" also; but if it be, its full examination in the light of Scripture is only the more necessary.

Now for the first point raised by our brother,-the equivalence of " atonement" and " propitiation." The facts stand thus :In the Old Testament, we have but the one word for both; that must be conceded. In our version, there is no " propitiation," but " atonement" only. It is atonement in the holy place, atonement out of it, atonement by the scape-goat, and so on. Now the word for this is uniformly rendered in the Septuagint version–in every place in which our version gives "atonement"- by the word "propitiation." It is propitiation in the holy place, propitiation out of it, propitiation by the scape-goat:this cannot be denied.

Turning, then, to the New Testament and the Revised Version-confessedly more exact than the common one- we find this same Septuagint word "propitiation" used as translating the Old-Testament word for "atonement," and no other word used for it at all:"atonement" has dropped out, and "propitiation" takes its place. In other words, so far as we have any thing at all to guide us, the New-Testament and the Septuagint use is one. Surely, then, this is some ground, to begin with, for believing that they are one. If one, the question is not "begged" at all; it is settled-perfectly settled. If not, then reason must be adduced why it is not. It is well known that in general the Greek of the Septuagint is that of the New Testament. That here we have an exception, it seems to me impossible to prove.
Now as to propitiation without blood by the scape-goat, it is surely no greater difficulty than atonement without blood. Let us remember that in the Old Testament there is, all through, one word for atonement, and that the positive statement of Lev. 17:is, "It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul." How is there any difficulty as to "propitiation," then, which there is not as to "atonement" ?

Although it is the " Mood that maketh atonement for the soul," yet in the lowest grade of the sin-offering, it is made by an offering of "fine flour" (Lev. 5:11-13), all(J in Num. 16:46, 47, by incense. Have we any warrant for saying that the same word shall be translated in the one case "propitiation," in the others, "atonement"? Surely none.

May not the difficulty be settled in this way, that whereas the, blood was the ordinary and proper showing forth of what was required to put away sin, yet in certain cases another method might be adopted, not at the will of man, but of God ?

At least, the word is the same-confessedly the same :the Old Testament indicates no difference; and the New Testament, so far as I am aware, none.

"It seems simplest," W. C. I. says, "to think of propitiation when that which propitiates is actually applied to the place of propitiation." Yet God says, " I have given it you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls." Now, granting, for the moment, that atonement may be generic, propitiation specific, the generic term must include, all the species:the smaller must be included in the larger. But it will be said, This clashes with propitiation in the holy place in any way. I answer, It makes the altar the first necessity, that is all; but that is very important for our purpose.

The mercy-seat was God's throne in the midst of Israel- where He dwelt between the cherubim. Thus it was of all importance that there should be a special testimony to the atoning work. The sevenfold sprinkling before it shows what is in question. We have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." No wonder, then, that here we should find a special "propitiatory." But the altar, it is said, was not that. Here, the point is, then, what does this mercy-seat, or propitiatory, imply? Surely for this we must look to the day of atonement, when alone the blood was sprinkled there, and see for what purpose it is stated to have been sprinkled. This, it seems to me, should be decisive. " He shall make propitiation for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins, and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness."

Thus the mercy-seat is a propitiatory, because it enables God to remain, in mercy, among a sinful people. The blood sprinkled there propitiates the holiness of God in this respect, for them surely most important. But this is only a special application of the blood, already acceptable and accepted for the putting away of sin before this, -a propitiation as soon as shed,-propitiating, therefore, as to whatever it was applied to.

No doubt, then, there is a difference as to the mercy-seat and altar ; but the blood was put on each for an exactly similar reason, and so it is stated. This, our brother does not seem to have taken fully into account.

And now, lastly, as to the blessed Antitype:what I have said, should clear this. But I would press only that there was wrath borne, (was there not ?)-a cup of wrath actually drained before death. When He cried, " Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," was He still under wrath ? Nay, did He pass out of the body and bear it up to the throne of God, only there to be accepted ? Let it be but a moment, if you please:principle, there is no difference between a moment and an age:I ask earnestly, Did He do this?

I believe no Christian heart will say He did. And if He did not, the question which we have been here considering is completely settled.

Of course, apart from death atonement could not be:so I have said. Propitiation required man's full sentence to be borne. Yet it is true that when the cup of wrath was drained, propitiation was thus far accomplished. That is not, surely, " propitiation without blood," when it is said that death was still "needed for atonement." But I believe our brother must agree that, in comparison with the cup of wrath, "death was nothing." Is it not just this that makes the cross different from any mere martyr's death ?

But I would add that the difficulty in all this matter seems rather a difficulty of clear interpretation of the Old-Testament types, and of the phraseology employed, than a difference as to the atoning work itself. No one of us really doubts that the Lord bore sin only upon the cross, not after it, or up to heaven. Thus, even in the type, the offering was always "before the Lord." (Lev. 1:3, 5, etc.) He was not afar off in heaven, or shut up in the holiest merely. Offerings that in no way went in there were distinctly owned as accepted of him, and sin removed from him who offered them. No one can question this, and it entirely corresponds with all our thoughts as to atonement.

But the difficulty is here:that wherever the blood is sprinkled, in the Mosaic ritual, "atonement" is said (as it were, afresh) to be made by it. It is a definite application of atonement to this or that person or thing; but this is with us differently expressed. A Jewish priest could in this way "make atonement" again and again with the same blood; bat for us, how would this repetition of atonement consist with our thoughts of it? For us, the purging would be manifold, but the atonement one. The thought is the same, however,-the expression different.

Now when we approach the subject of the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, we must keep this in mind. There is here this added difficulty, that approach to God on the mercy-seat is now ours, as it was not theirs. The way into the holiest is for us made manifest, and our blessings are in the heavenly places. For them, the mercy-seat was God's throne on earth,-His dwelling-place in the midst of His people. They approached there only by a representative, and never freely, while on this account their ordinary meeting-place with God was at the altar of burnt-offering. (Exod. 29:43.) This is very significant, that God could meet them elsewhere, and that at the very place where He gave the blood to be an atonement for their souls. An entering into the heavenly places was for them unknown.

But the mercy-seat exhibited to them the atoning blood as perpetuating God's dwelling-place among them,-hence was the true propitiatory, or place of atonement, in that sense of which I have just been speaking. For upon this, all their manifest relationship with God as His peculiar people depended. Thus, on the day of atonement, the blood was sprinkled first here, and then upon the altar, but for the same purpose in each case, to preserve them to the people by the purging of their sins.
For us, there is entrance into the heavenly places, and Christ Himself is our Propitiatory, or Mercy-Seat. Gone in, a Man, into the presence of God, His being there thus shows how indeed the precious blood by which He has entered abides before God forever. And by it we have boldness to enter into the holiest.

THE ADDRESSES TO THE CHURCHES. (Concluded) Laodicea:What Brings the Time of Christ's Patience to an End. (Rev. 3:14-22.)

Confederacy is, politically and socially, a character of the times. In mercantile affairs of every kind, companies are getting to be more and more every where the rule. The strength realized by union is here well recognized. In the rise of the popular element, combination is not merely an advantage; it is-an imperative necessity. By its means alone can the poor man make his voice be heard upon nearer equality of terms with the capitalist, the laborer with iris employer. Yet here the true individuality which God would have,-the individuality of conscience with which alone real uprightness of conduct can be maintained,-has to be lost and give way to the will of the majority. No power can be attained by the body at large thus except by ruinous self-sacrifice on the part of its members. It must have unity, the unity of a machine, or nothing can be effected; but for this, heart and conscience must be leveled down to wood and iron. It is essential that freedom of individual action there should be none; and thus there is no tyranny so great as the tyranny often here exercised,-no more ruthless treading down of the most sacred and personal rights than with those in whose mouths the cry of " People's rights!" is oftenest and loudest.

Religious associations may seem often in their laxity as opposite to this as can be, and yet the laxity itself be as contrary to God, and bind me as much to His dishonor. What seems the largest liberality may thus be the very spirit of disobedience, and to this it is that every thing in the present day is tending. Satan can press upon us the evil of division just there where division is not an evil, but a right and godly separation from evil; and he can point out good to be accomplished, to make us little careful as to the means by which it is proposed to accomplish it. A united Christian church which should become so by making it a matter of indifference whether Christ were God or only the highest kind of man would certainly be his greatest achievement. The startling thing to-day is, that men considered evangelical can accept associations of this kind; and the platform upon which they stand widens continually:what would have been liberality a short time since is now narrowness. The world moves; but the unbending word of God which moves not, against this it will dash itself only to its destruction.

Amid this concourse and confederacy of men, communion with God becomes continually more restricted:" Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." This door is plainly individual,-not of the church, but of the heart. But then it is as plain that the church-door is shut against Him; not that He has shut it, or Himself spewed the church out of His mouth. He is still lingering in His love,-still saying, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten:be zealous, therefore, and repent." But they do not repent. He is as when at Nazareth in the days of His earthly ministry (rejected by those who should have known Him best,) it is written of Him, "And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hand upon a few sick folk, and healed them." He could not do what He would; He would do what He could:"And He marveled at their unbelief; and He went round about the villages, teaching." So here, rejected by the body at large, He tries one door after another, in this solemn pause before the end. He would not judge in the mass; so He tries in detail. And if any heart responds,-for all seem to have shut Him out, but He will not take it yet as final,-then He will come in there, and sup:that soul shall yet to its everlasting joy entertain its Lord.

But the time hastens, and the nearness of the end is shown by the closing promise to the overcomer:" To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as 1 also overcame, and am set down with My Father on His throne." He speaks, as He appears to the apostle, as Son of Man here. It is His kingdom as Son of Man He is about to take:that special throne from which as with a rod of iron He will break in pieces all opposition, and bring every thing into subjection to God. For it is His to do this. He has laid the foundation in the work of the cross:His hands shall finish it. All judgment is His, because He is the Son of Man. And judgment itself now is the only work left for mercy to accomplish. So there comes-most terrible of all wrath, the wrath of the Lamb,-the wrath of love itself:the wrath of Him who has been watching all these patient centuries the oppression of the meek, in whose ears have been the cries of the fallen in the terrible strife; He of whom the wicked hath said in his heart, He will not require it; yet who beholdeth mischief and spite to requite it with His hand; to whom the poor committeth himself, who is the Helper of the fatherless. he now riseth up. "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord:I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him."

In a word, the present day of grace is in this promise marked as just at its end. And with this the Church, as the vessel of the testimony of that grace, is being removed from the earth. The "present things "at which we have been looking are just over. The Christian dispensation has run its course. The saints removed to heaven, the rest that are left are but reprobate, and fall soon into utter apostasy. Then comes the earth's great trial-time, the time of Jacob's trouble, out of which yet he shall be delivered; the heading up of unbelief in gigantic forms of evil, dimly (and but dimly) now looming up amid the shadows of the horizon. Beyond it yet the glory of a brighter day, when the redeemed of the Lord shall come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; when a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment; and a MAN shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Sweeter than all and brighter the joy above, when in the mansions of the Father's house that promise shall be fulfilled, " I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

PROF. DRUMMOND AND THE TEACHING OF NATURE

"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased," says the inspired Word :how wonderfully fulfilled none can surely doubt. Let us notice too, if we have not, that these are not independent, but strictly connected statements :the running to and fro is, and is represented to be, the cause of the increase of knowledge.

Knowledge consists, to a large extent at least, in the observing of differences, bringing out thus the essential features of each object before the mind, as well as its relation to other objects. Comparison is thus the great means of knowledge. Whatever the provocative of a running to and fro upon the earth, an age of traveling means opportunities of comparison, and the fostering of a spirit of research. Thus the present facilities of travel connect with the undeniable growth and spread of every kind of knowledge.

I say advisedly " of every kind of knowledge." Of course I do not mean by this that there will be more conversions to God, – this is in the power of the Spirit of God alone to effect ; yet I do mean that the knowledge of divine things, or (if you will,) the opening up of them to knowledge, cannot be excepted from this necessary increase. Scripture is always indeed the true and only key to every thing. Without it, there would be, as to all that is of real importance for man to know, nothing but utter darkness – a darkness that might be felt. Nay, more ; the voice of prophecy declares that upon all the present increase of knowledge shall come such an eclipse ; for "behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples," when the glory of the Lord rises upon Israel. (Isa. Ix.) Thus the pride and idolatry of intellect will yet meet its terrible rebuke from God.

And yet, I repeat that no kind of knowledge-objective knowledge-can be excepted from the prophet's statement. Indeed, if it be allowed to apply at all,* it can scarcely be doubted that the application is mainly to spiritual things. *Keil thus (in his Comm. on Dan., p. 486,) remarks:" Shut signifies . . . to go to and fro, to pass through a land in order to seek out or search, to go about spying. . . . From these renderings, there arises for this passage before us the meaning, to search through, to examine a book." But no examples are given. For my purpose here, I need not examine the application further; for it is still true, whether Daniel speak of it or not, that this has actually been fulfilled.* Nor could one suppose, surely, an increase of natural knowledge without some corresponding increase in this direction. The various departments of knowledge so depend on one another,-the world of nature, the history of men, even their sins and errors (spite of themselves) so testify for God,-Scripture touches the whole circle of knowledge in such various ways, that we may be well assured this would be impossible.

It is this connection that exposes revelation to attack also from all sides. Man being what the cross has proved him to be, it was inevitable that there would be such attacks. On the other hand, that God should use these to bring out and manifest the power of His word, we might well expect. It has been always so. Science is now the battle-field, but the foe is not science ; it is as ever the unbelief of man, driven out of other refuges, and concentrating its forces behind the shelter of forms but dimly seen as yet. In darkness, more plainly than ever, is their retreat, hypothesis, mystery, agnosticism, are their weapons. Their advocates have themselves most plainly pointed out the issue to be between revelation or despair, -the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Unknowable.

Is it worth while to dispute with them the field of which they vaunt that they have secure possession? With revelation ours, need we contest the field of science? So much has this been dragged through the mire of evolutionistic infidelity, that in the mind of many it is useless to try and save it now. Why go outside of Scripture on to a doubtful ground of nature and observation and reasoning where so many stumble ?

Just this last is, no doubt, the most forcible of arguments. It is not the attacks of infidelity that we have so much cause to dread as the well-intentioned efforts of those who, seeing the ship of revelation laboring in the tempest, hastily come in to help her by throwing out her precious freight into the sea. Inspiration, creation, and other capital doctrines of the Word have been thus again and again laid hold of for destruction, and no wonder if there should be fear of any new attempt at reconciling what never was opposed with the loss of what never was in peril.

Prof. Drummond's book* is one of these late attempts, and it is certainly not one of the feeblest. It has had a very wide circulation, has been greeted with enthusiastic praise, and denounced also with special energy. " *Natural Law in the Spiritual World." By Henry Drummond, R. S. E.; F. G. S.* By Henry Drummond, This perhaps is only what might be expected in the case of a work of real talent upon so important a subject by a man not unknown. But it makes it difficult for one to speak who sympathizes with both sides, and therefore, as a matter of course, with neither.

There was real cause for alarm. Prof. Drummond tells you at the outset that science with him has brought about "an entire re-casting of truth" (p. 8:). His "spiritual world before was a chaos of facts;" "it was the one region still unpossessed by law. I saw then why men of science distrust theology; why those who have learned to look upon law as authority grow cold to it-it was the great exception " (p. 10:).

While his spiritual world was thus a chaos, nature alone appeared to him firm. "And the reason is palpable. No man can study modern science without a change coming over his view of truth. What impresses him about nature is its solidity. He is there standing upon actual things, among fixed laws" (20:). "There is a sense of solidity about a law of nature which belongs to nothing else in the world. Here at last, amid all that is shifting, is one thing sure, . . . one thing that holds its way to me eternally, uncorrupted, and undefiled" (13:). "In these laws, one stands face to face with truth, solid and unchangeable" (p. 4.).

Yet it seems they are not easy to define, and must be taken on authority. " The laws of nature are simply the statements of the orderly condition of things in nature, what is found in nature by a sufficient number of competent observers. What these law's are in themselves is not agreed. That they have any absolute existence even, is far from certain"! (p. 5.)

Thus "theology" is delivered into the hands of a sufficient number of natural observers ; and science thus offers if in the first place "to corroborate theology, in the second, to purify it" (18:). "And while there are some departments of theology where its jurisdiction cannot be sought, there are others in which nature may have to define the contents as well as the limits of belief" (21:). And "men must oppose with every energy they possess what seems to them to oppose the eternal course of things" (21:).

No wonder if by this process there should be in result "an entire re-casting of truth." No wonder rather if there be a casting out of truth. " The old ground of faith, authority, is given up" (p. 26.). Yet what is the testimony of a "sufficient number of competent observers"? Is it impossible that Scripture, with its innumerable lines of proof-"many infallible proofs" (Acts 1:3.)-should be equally trustworthy ?

The principles of Prof. Drummond's book, then, are alarming enough for the Christian. And he carries them out consistently. All through you will find, side by side, 'quotations from the apostles of Christ and the apostles of evolution, and treated, one would think, with almost equal reverence.

The result is very much what might be anticipated from all this, although there is a certain looseness of language which allows one to hope that what is said may not after all convey his real meaning. Yet, if it be so, he has had time to disclaim what has been imputed to him, and we cannot hear that he has done so. Whatever, then, his own views, the words remain with all their mischievous effect for the many who have been captivated by the brilliancy of the presentation, as well as (I must add) the truth that they contain ; for that they contain truth is to me incontestable. And it is this mixture of what is true and valuable with what is false and evil, that is to be dreaded; for by it the enemy of our souls obtains a double victory; either he prevails upon us to reject the truth because of the falsehood mixed with it, or else to receive the two together. God's word to us, as to Jeremiah, is, " If thou shalt take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth."

Here are some of the statements in question:- "We should be forsaking the lines of nature were we to Imagine for a moment that the new creation was to be formed out of nothing. Ex nihilo nihil-nothing can be made out of nothing. Matter is uncreatable and indestructible; nature and man can only form and transform" (p. 297).

Here there is that looseness of statement of which I have spoken. "Matter is uncreatable and indestructible; " but he is speaking of the new creation, the divine work in a soul. Is this, then, " matter " ? and cannot God create or destroy matter, if it were ? "Nature and man can only form and transform;" but what, then, is "nature"? Is it God, or what He has created ? If the latter, what marvel? if the former, did not God, then, create the world ?

Again we have (p. 236),-

"This primary idea. ..leads to a doctrine of immortality, or, to speak more correctly, of life, far surpassing any that had been expressed in the formulas of the current philosophy or theology, and resting upon premises and conceptions altogether different. In fact, it can dispense both with the philosophical" thesis of the immateriality or indestructibility of the human soul, and with the theological thesis of the miraculous corporeal reconstruction of our person:theses, the first of which is altogether foreign to the religion of the Bible, and the second, absolutely opposed to reason."

It is true that this is a quotation from a German author (Reuss), but it is quoted with approbation by Prof. Drummond, who certainly endorses here the materiality of the soul and the denial of the resurrection. And this confirms the worst meaning of the extract made before. Annihilationism naturally goes with it also, and this the definition of eternal life which he accepts from Herbert Spencer distinctly corroborates, for eternal life is, according to it, nothing but eternal material existence, and the whole question with Prof. Drummond in his essay on it is, how to escape extinction at death. That he who does not receive eternal life must become extinct seems surely the inevitable conclusion.

Again we have (p. 281),-

"The completion of life is now a supreme question. It is important to observe how it is being answered. If we ask science or philosophy, they will refer us to evolution."

And he goes on to speak of struggle for life, etc., the elements of the most extreme Darwinian form.

Thus it is very evident that the denunciation of the book before us has not been without reason. That is denied in it which involves all Christianity in its denial; for " if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised ; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins" (i Cor. 15:16, 17.)

The denial of the resurrection, the immateriality of the soul, the creation of matter, and the advocacy of full evolution in its extreme Darwinian form, are surely enough to startle the dullest Christian into refusal of a book which deliberately proposes these for our acceptance. Yet its author was accepted at Northfield and at Chautauqua.

(To be continued.)

Q. I.-"In 'Eight Lectures on Prophecy' I read, 'Into this new earth the new Jerusalem, the glorified Church, will descend,' etc. I have just looked at Rev. 21:, but it does not seem clear to me. Will not the new earth be for the earthly people, and the new heaven for the heavenly people?"

Ans.-First, as to the expression "new heaven," in Rev. 21:i, it is evidently the atmospheric heaven only, and not the " third heaven " of Paul's vision and the paradise of God. It is when the great white throne is set that the earth and the heaven flee away from before the face of Him who sits on it; and Peter describes the same change:"The heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat."

But it is true that the heavenly people will always remain so, as Israel and the millennial saints in general will always remain an earthly one. Nor does the descent of the new Jerusalem militate against this. We have to remember that the pictures in Revelation are not to be taken as literal description, and that in the heavenly city is the throne of God and the Lamb ; moreover, it is said as to the new earth, " The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." This does not imply that God will forsake heaven for earth ; and the Lord's promise to us is, "Where I am, there ye shall be also." Nor is it even said that the new Jerusalem will be on earth. Near and intimate connection there will be, assuredly ; and this is all that the expressions can, without straining, be made to mean.

Q. 2.-"In Ex. 22:28, who are the 'gods' mentioned ? and why are they not to revile them ?"

Ans.-It is the same expression as in Ps. 82:6, which the Lord quotes in Jno. 10:34 :"I said, Ye are gods," and of which He says that they are called gods to whom the word of God came. The force is doubtless that of "judges," divinely commissioned, and thus representing God. Those who reviled them thus spoke against God's authority in the judge. And the same principle now applies. Jude speaks of some as " filthy dreamers," who " defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities ; " and Peter has a similar warning :both in connection with evils which should characterize the latter days. The application to the present time is only too plain, and Christians should lay it to heart in the midst of a state of things when so much license with the tongue is claimed and given.

Q. 3.-" What is meant by the expression ' baptized for the dead ' in i Cor. 15:29,-' Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? why are they, then, baptized for the dead? ' "

Ans.-The expression may be rendered, "baptized in place of the dead." The preposition translated "for" in both the Common and Revised Versions (ύπέρ) is, in 2 Cor. 5:20 and Philem. 13, translated "instead of," although the Rev. Ver. has corrected it to "in behalf of" in both places. But the meaning "instead of" is admitted in the lexicons.

It might also be, and has been by many, translated "ever the dead," according to the root idea of the preposition, without any change of meaning, perhaps even more vividly. For the thought in the mind of the apostle, as is evident by the whole passage, is of a battle-field, in which fresh combatants are taking the place of those removed by death. In those days, to become a Christian was to expose one's self to death; and why thus fill up the ranks decimated by so fierce a conflict if there be no resurrection ? For then Christ is not risen, as he argues, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. " Over the dead " would be in this way vividly pictorial. But the meaning is, in any case, plain.

Q. 4.-"How am I to understand 2 Pet. 2:12? Annihilationists regard this passage as a strong proof of their doctrine."

Ans.-The point pressed by annihilationists is the resemblance drawn between beasts and evil men. Says one of their leaders,-

" They resemble them in irrationality, and will be like them in their destiny. The beasts are made, or born, for φθoράv (extinction"), and wicked men will suffer φθoράv also (Gal. 6:) ; but if this word signified endless misery, it could not be said that the 'natural irrational brutes' were 'made' for that."

Now it is freely and fully granted that φθoρά does not mean "endless misery." I am not aware of any one having ever contended that it did. No one doubts, I suppose, that it means, in general in the New Testament, "corruption," physical or moral; and so it is always translated in the Common Version (Rom. 8:21; i Cor. 15:42, 50; Gal. 6:8; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2:12, 19), except twice,-Col. 2:22, "to perish," and in this place, "to be destroyed." It is derived from the verb φθείρω, which is similarly translated "to corrupt" (i Cor. 15:33; 2 Cor. 7:2; 11:3; Eph. 4:22; Jude 10; Rev. 19:2), except in i Cor. 3:17, which I shall presently notice. In the passage before us it also occurs, though in a stronger form in the text King James' translators followed, and is therefore rendered "utterly perish." It is the word used once again in 2 Tim. 3:8, "men of corrupt minds."

"Corruption" is evidently, then, the leading thought in the New-Testament use of the word. But the passage in i Cor. 3:" 17 presents the word in a double sense, apparently, which it is hard to give in a translation, and the Common Version uses for it two words, "defile" and " destroy:" " If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." The one word, however, defining the sin and the punishment, is surely significant. It speaks solemnly of repayment in kind, which is a noticeable principle in the divine government:" Reward her even as she rewarded ; and double unto her double, according to her works :in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double." (Rev. 18:6.) We can retain this thought in Corinthians by a slight amplification :" If any man corrupt the temple of God, him shall God give over to corruption ;" and this will be more really literal than the other translation.

If we now look again at 2 Pet. 2:12, we shall find a like thought:"But these, as irrational beasts, made naturally for capture and corruption, speaking evil of things that they understand not, in their corruption shall also be given to corruption, acquiring for themselves the wages of unrighteousness." I give here again as literal a translation as I can, retaining throughout a uniform rendering of the words in question. The Rev. Ver. gives in this place, "shall in their destroying surely be destroyed," and similarly in Corinthians,-" If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy," preserving the due connection of sin and punishment, but losing that with "for the temple of God is holy:"-the thought of the sin as the corruption of a holy thing.

But in this way the whole interest of annihilationists in the passage is taken away. I do not mean, but deny, that it serves them as it stands in our translations ; for what they have to prove for this, and can never prove, is, that the destruction of a man is extinction, as that of the beast is. In itself, destruction never means this, but the removal out of the place for which the beast, or the man, or whatever else, was originally made. The beast, indeed, was only made to fill a temporary place. It was made, therefore, for destruction when its time runs out. Not so with man, and destruction for him means judgment.

Phthora, in the New Testament, seems always, however, to mean "corruption," which in the case of the beast is physical, of course; but it does not follow that because man is likened to the beast in his end, that the end is the same. Likeness is not identity, nor does it imply it. And what forbids the thought wholly is, that as applied to men in the passage here, the corruption is not physical at all, but spiritual; and to this, as having chosen it, they are given up. They are recompensed in kind; they reap as they sow:having sown to the flesh, they will of the flesh reap corruption. Judgment delivers them up to this:"he that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still."

(Eph. 3:8.)

Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. 8:9.)

Aye, rich, with all the wealth of heaven's store,'-
The gift of grace divine.
So rich, that earth, with all its treasured ore,
Fades into insignificance ;-nay, more ;-
Is utterly contemned, and spurned away,
By every heir of God and child of day.
How comes this wealth to sinners lost, undone?
It comes to us by grace, through God's dear Son,
Who saw our lost estate, and bare our woe,
That we might with Him dwell who loved us so.
Said I, "to dwell with Him?"-ah, there's the key
That unlocks all God's treasure-house for me !
In Christ I am, His boundless wealth I share,
God's Word declares I am His Son's coheir.
Blest saint of God !-earth's glories fade away
Before th' effulgence of eternal day.
Now let thy soul in Christ forever find
That wealth unsearchable.

Rt. S.

Lytham, England,
Sept. 15th, 1888.

Ans. 25.-The difficulty as to Rev. 20:4-6 is an old one, but arises merely from a want of understanding as to the language of Scripture, to which, nevertheless, our own very nearly conforms. We speak of "souls" when we mean " persons," and so does Scripture, only more largely. "My soul" is used there as an emphatic "I." Thus Balaam, "Let me (my soul) die the death of the righteous." And Abraham, " My soul shall live." Again, in Isa. 46:2, "Themselves are gone into captivity," margin, "their soul;" in Ps. 78:50, "He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;" and again, in i Chron. 5:21, margin, "They took away . . . of souls of men a hundred thousand." Thus there is no real difficulty in " I saw the souls of them that were beheaded, and they lived."

But there would be a very real difficulty with our common use of soul. "Risen with Christ" is indeed a truth for us already, but it is not ever represented as a resurrection of the soul. It is we who are dead in trespasses and sins, and who are risen with Christ. You may say it applies to the soul. Granted, if you analyze it, but Scripture never uses an incongruous thought, as this would be. It was not Christ's soul that rose (in this sense of soul), and it is with Him we are risen. To say "risen in soul " would not give the proper thought.

Moreover, we have in ver. 4, 5 (first part), a vision, and in 5 (last part) and 6, the interpretation of the vision. Now the interpretation needs no interpretation; and it shows how literally the vision itself is to be understood. This, like the name of a picture underneath it, assures us that it is a true resurrection that the vision represents. Nor is it of martyrs only. There are those, first of all, who are sitting on thrones; then a special company of martyrs is raised, and added to these. All of them together constitute " the first resurrection," in which every one is "blessed and holy" who "has part." It is a resurrection of saints alone (comp. Luke 20:36).

Q. 19.-"Will you please explain Gal. 6:8? How can we sow to the Spirit and reap life everlasting, since everlasting life is the gift of God ?"

Ans.-You have the two thoughts brought together in the last verses of Rom. 6::"Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life ; for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Here what is the end of a holy course is none the less the gift of God. It is only its being the latter indeed could secure its being the former, for who could demand it as "wages"? So it is "they that have done good" that come forth to the "resurrection of life" (Jno. 5:29). Scripture is full of such things. God has ordained for us the end, and thus there is no uncertainty about it; but in grace also He has ordained the way by which we should reach it.

But eternal life is not merely an end in the future; it is also a thing existing now in the believer,-"eternal life abiding in him" (i Jno. 3:15). We go into it as a condition by and by, but it is in us already as born of God.

One of the most interesting and significant features of the time is the rapid growth of the mission movement. In itself, it is surely full of the deepest interest to the Christian heart, the awakening of the Lord's people (though even yet but very partially,) to their responsibility to carry out His command to " preach the gospel to every creature." The results, too, have been striking proportionately to the effort made. The history is one full of stirring incident and power to arouse the deepest emotions. The work and the workmen call out our fullest sympathy, and demand our most earnest support ; and here our prayers at least can penetrate into all fields, unhindered by what may and must often limit cooperation of another kind. Alas! how much are we strangers to what is (in the main,) of Christ and for Him ! We know little, because we care so little ; and then, again, it is assuredly true that we care so little oftentimes because we know so little.

A singularly interesting book has been published in the last year,* from which some idea may be gained of how God has been moving within the last century to open the world to the blessed gospel of His grace, as well as, in some measure, of how He has moved in humiliation hearts to send the gospel into these open doors. *"The Crisis of Missions," by Rev. T. Person, D. D. This book may be had of Loizeaux Bros., 63 Fourth Ave., New York. Price, $1.25, post-paid.* It would be a pleasure to be able to transfer to these pages some sufficient extracts to induce others to get the book itself, or to convey to those who may not be able to do this a scanty outline of the story there so well and wisely told. Dr. Pierson may without reproach be styled an enthusiast upon his subject. Yet he one who expects no conversion of the world as the result of present evangelizing, but the speedy coming of the Lord Himself.

As to the conversion of the world, a few figures, culled from a pamphlet* issued about the same time with the book just mentioned, should demonstrate how little has the century almost passed (since Wm. Carey went to India) done to give any national hope in this direction. *"A Century of Missions and Increase of the Heathen," by Rev. Jas. Johnston, F.S.S.* The population of the world is set down in it as about 1,470,000,000. Of these, the Protestants number 135,000.000 ; the Greek church, 85,000,000 ; the Roman Catholics, 195,000,000. The total of Christendom is thus 415,000,000.

It does not need to argue how much, if we could ascertain the proportion among these of true Christians, these numbers would be reduced. Over against these 415,000,000 of professing followers of Christ (many, indeed, not even that, for what is the meaning in a census of the first class-Protestants ?) we must place 8,000,000 of Jews, 173,000,000 of Mohammedans, and 874,000,000 of heathen,-1,055,000,000 in all. "When Carey wrote his famous inquiry, in 1786, he estimated the Mohammedans at 130,000,000 and the Pagans at 420,000,000,- equal to 550,000,000. This would give an increase of 493,000,000. But as we have come to the knowledge of vast populations in Africa and the East which could not be even guessed at in Carey's time, we must largely increase his estimate, but I am not prepared at present to say to what extent. Of this, however, I am sure, that the actual increase during the hundred years is much more than the 200,000,000 at which I have put it."

As "results" of this century of missions, Mr. Johnston gives,–

"870,000 adults, converts from among the heathen, are now in full communion with the Church of Christ, as the result of Protestant missionary labors. These, with their families and dependents, form Christian communities scattered over almost every portion of the habitable globe; numbering, in the aggregate, at least 2,800,000 souls."

Thus, after a hundred years of missionary labor, we have 197,000,000 more of heathen to be reached by the gospel than when we began ! " It is enough to note the fact," adds Mr. Johnston, "and its bearing on the possibility of Christian missions, with their three millions of converts, overtaking the increasing one thousand millions of heathens and Mohammedans in the world." The italics are his own.

Other considerations make the outlook in this respect even more hopeless. The same writer adds,-

"It is full time that the Church of God looked this fact in the face, that no religion which had been formulated into a system, or is possessed of sacred books, has even been arrested in Us progress by our modern missions. Hindooism, Buddhism, and Islam not only stand their ground, they are yearly making proselytes by tens of thousands. For one convert from any of these systems, they gain thousands from the inferior races, which they are absorbing into their systems."

He qualifies this statement thus far, that- "It is true that Christian missions have made an impression on all these systems; many agencies have combined to unsettle the belief of Hindoos and Mohammedans, and it is no hyperbole to say that these systems of error have been shaken. But it depends upon the future of the Church's efforts whether the shaking is to lead to an awakening followed by a new lease of superstition and fanaticism, or to their overthrow. The shaking may not move the foundations of these systems, but, like the agitation of some chemical compounds, they may crystallize into new forms of error, more dangerous and deadly than the old."

To this last consideration the dechristianization of Christendom which is going on, spite of all real or apparent revivals, gives alarming force. We shall, however, speak of this, if the Lord will, at another time. It is enough to show here that the logic of facts is coming with irresistible force to demonstrate the truth of Scripture- that the world is not to be converted by present agencies. It has been indeed promised, and will be fulfilled, to Christ:"Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession ;" but how to be fulfilled is also declared to us :" Thou shall bruise them with a rod of iron ; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Ps. 2:9.)

If it were simply ignorance that had to be removed in the case of the heathen, then the light of Christianity might be counted on to dispel it. But it is not so ; else their condition would be more their misfortune than their sin. In fact, Christendom itself, but for the sovereign mercy of God, had before this returned into utter heathenism. We have come already through the dark ages of professing Christianity. Before our eyes, men are lapsing into a deeper darkness which the sure word of prophecy declares. When the glory of the Lord shall arise (as yet it will) upon Israel, "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples." (Isa. Ix. 2.)

Yet this should not damp our zeal for the spread of the gospel, which the Lord's word directly enjoins, and with which His power will never be lacking. Results are not indeed what we would desire, and yet they are full of encouragement. Says Mr. Johnston once again,-
"The annual increase in mission converts averages, so far as we can learn, about six or eight percent., while the increase to the membership of the churches at home does not average one per cent, per annum."

In many places, the testing of the reality of the work also has been sufficiently severe ; as, for instance, in Madagascar ; and some of the most notable records of faithfulness and endurance in modern times have come to us from the mission fields.

Dr. Pierson's book will give, in a short compass, the best idea of what has been accomplished and what is accomplishing in this way. And one of the most striking facts he brings before us is the way in which God has, by His providence, been opening door after door to the divinely given faith that laid hold upon the command to publish the gospel as a sure pledge of power to go before and to accompany it. Who will not be moved at this record of one only of His marvelous doings among the Pacific islands?-

"Sixty years ago, the brig Thaddeus was nearing the Sandwich Islands, with the first missionaries to those habitations of darkness and cruelty, on board. Never was an enterprise, humanly speaking, more hopeless. Seventeen persons were going to these ten isles to evangelize them, to upheave the ocean, and flood them with the knowledge of the Lord:and against coast-barriers as formidable as ever the gospel encountered,- barbarism, sensuality, superstition, brutality. These people, lost to shame, went almost naked. Husbands had many wives, and wives had many husbands; and they exchanged as they would trade in any other commodity. Two-thirds of all the children died in infancy by the hands of their mothers, who would choke a babe, or bury it alive in the earth floor of the hut, to stop its crying. A nation of thieves, gamblers, drunkards, they sacrificed human beings as victims, and had neither science nor literature, however rude. Government was a farce; a taboo system made death the penalty for offenses so small that they might be committed without either will or knowledge; for a common man to allow his shadow to fall upon a chief, for instance, could be atoned for only as his head lay at the feet of that chief. No words can do justice to the moral and spiritual condition of those islands. It was a question whether such a people could be saved, even by the gospel; not a few doubted whether they were worth saving. Could yon expect the sea to sweep against such barriers and wash them away ? It would take a thousand years !

"But as the boat drew near the coast, Hopu, a native who, having found his way to this land and to Christ, was now going back, put off in a small boat for shore, and at once returning, swung his hat and shouted, 'Oohu's idols are no more!' God had gone before these pioneers. The old king was dead, the images of the gods all burned, and the first death-blow struck at the taboo system,-all this before the vessel's prow touched the beach. The missionaries wrote in their journal, ' Sing, 0 heavens, for the Lord hath done it !'

"Ah, yes, the island system was sinking, and the huge barriers subsiding; the sea need not change its level, but only move in upon the sinking land. And so in two years the missionaries began to give them a written language and literature. The first convert was Keopulani, the king's mother. Within four years, the Christian Sabbath and Ten Commandments were formally recognized by government; and so the work went on, until within fifty years the islands took their place with other Christian nations, and became themselves centers of gospel light for the darkness around."

This is only a sample, though a striking one, of how God has been working to remove hindrances and open doors within the century past. At the beginning of it, " there was little or no access to the great nations of the heathen world. China was walled about, Japan's ports were sealed, India was held by an English power hostile to missions, Africa impenetrable even to the explorer, and the isles of the sea crowded with cannibals more to be dreaded than the devouring waves of the angry ocean." Mohammedanism made death the penalty of change of faith; and " there was less hope of proper missionary work among Roman Catholics than among Polynesian cannibals." Beside all this, "tediously slow travel and transportation made neighbors foreigners; languages, strange and hard to master, hindered even converse and communication, and, formed in the matrix of heathenism, offered no mold for spiritual ideas; moreover, at least sixty such tongues must be reduced to writing, having no literature, nor even lexicon, nor grammar." Woman, again, among these nations, was secluded, degraded, and "denied all social status and individual rights, and even a soul. Worst of all, caste, that gigantic foe of human progress, forbade not only conversion, but communion among converts."

These are but some of the external hindrances that existed. It is most interesting to see how largely, and in what manner these difficulties have been overcome. With the exception of one country-Thibet, soon likely to throw clown its barriers with the rest, the whole world is now accessible to missionary labor ; and here and there peoples, themselves evangelized, are helping to send out the gospel to others. The Bible is in almost every tongue, and the number of those who offer themselves for missionary labor is so increased that means are lacking to send them out.

No doubt, if we look at the work and its methods, there are many things that hinder full and unalloyed satisfaction. Yet who but must own that God has been working, and wonderfully working? Who but must be reminded of the words, "The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come"? Far off, assuredly, the end cannot be; and this going out of the gospel to the ends of the earth is, among so many signs, not the least. But not only in this way,-not only as onlookers,-should we be interested in it. It is Christ's work,-it is the proclamation of His dear name, that as such calls for our fellowship. How far behind are we, most of us, in this respect! And how often do we allow blemishes in the work to take away our interest in it, when they should rather stir our hearts to intercession and greater fervency of prayer in its behalf ! "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints!" Alas ! how little we do this ! How little are we able to lift ourselves out of the circle of our own horizon to link ourselves with what is dear to Christ upon earth !

Henceforth we may, if the Lord will, often return to look at features and details of the mission work, and in the meanwhile would recommend warmly Dr. Pierson's book, as a most helpful introduction to, and a means of engaging a more intelligent and practical interest in it.

The lesson of this chapter, as we in our day may read it, is very full in its evangelic teaching. Its two broad features are these:that let man but take his true place before God, he shall surely find God's mercy for him ; and then, also, that this mercy is, and must be, also righteousness. As the apostle puts it concerning the gospel, " It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; " and then why? "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed." In God's good news to fallen man is His righteousness revealed!

The prophet, though he be that-God's man toward the people, in the presence of God must fall as low as any other. A Manasseh, or a thief on the cross, could do no more than utter that cry, " Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips." And that is all the man of God can say. Like the Psalmist, " Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified."

It is the first essential thing for blessing to be brought just to this point:to the utter giving up of all pretension of any thing before God,-to the acceptance of His sentence of utter condemnation upon all the world;-all the world guilty before God. When we have reached that point, we do not look round with self-complacency upon our neighbors, to reflect upon how much guiltier they are than we. That word " LOST," if we know what it means, swallows up all other distinctions. It refuses to know any distinction. "Undone!" "Lost!" The sinner of the city and Isaiah the prophet absolutely upon the same level as to that!

Have you come down to that dead level, reader? Death is, you know, the abolisher of all distinctions. Men are dead ;- all dead ;-dead in trespasses and sins alike. Oh the hopelessness of that condition! Can you educate or improve death ? Can human power do aught with death? No; God alone can quicken. You must have "life." You must be born again." No works can come of you but "dead works;" nothing that has not the odor of corruption in it, until you are born again,-born of God, -born of His Word, which liveth and abideth for-ever:" and this is the word, which by the gospel is preached unto you." (i Pet. 1:25.)

Where and as you are, then,-utterly powerless and helpless,-doing nothing, being nothing, promising nothing, you must receive the sweet and gladdening message of God's good news. You can be nothing, do nothing, till you have received it, for you are born again by it, and only so. You do not even begin to live to God until it does its work upon you.

And now, mark. No sooner is there the acknowledgment, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips," than the mercy of God supplies the remedy. "Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, ' Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.'"

How blessed! how worthy of God! No long, laborious process of cure is here! No conditions are imposed, no work of self-help is enjoined. The provision of grace is simple, immediate, and immediately effectual then and there. On the sinner's part is solely the confession of ruin which sin has wrought. The declaration of iniquity taken away and of sin purged meets it at once on God's part. It is preached to the "undone" one. God's word gives him the assurance of what is done for him. He is not left to examine himself, and to search out by his own feelings what is the mind of God toward him. He has to believe only, and be at peace.

And so it ever is. Every where the gospel proclaims for all, because all are sinners, the good news of a salvation provided just for sinners. The call is, to "repent and believe the gospel,"-that is, to take the place of sinners, and just drink in the mercy provided for sinners. To "repent" is to give up the pretense and effort at self-justification. To "believe the gospel" is just to believe in the justification which God has provided.

" Being justified freely by His grace." "Freely," -what does that mean? "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." What is taking it freely ? Surely, just believing that it is mine, unconditionally mine, because I want it. That I am to assure myself that it is mine if I will," without any further question. This is the only " appropriation " Scripture knows of. The prophet confesses himself " undone." He is a needy, anxious, convicted one. He is thereupon assured that his iniquity is taken away, his sin is purged. That is what he is called on to appropriate. Not something that is not his own, but something that is freely his, just upon the ground of his being a poor lost one, needing it.

Many, if I could ask, Do you need a salvation such as this? would have no difficulty at all in giving answer that they did. And further, if I asked them, would they have just such a salvation if they could, would think it folly to ask such a question. With them, the question is of God's will, not of theirs. In Scripture, the question is of man's will, not of God's. " How often would 7 have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and YE would not." " Lord, if thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." "I will:be thou clean." "Who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." Thus, if we will, there is no difficulty. For lost ones God has provided salvation through the work of Jesus. If we are that, and would have that salvation, it is ours. " It is not for us to question, but to believe our blessedness.

But what a strange mode of purging unclean lips-a live coal" from the altar! A coal red-hot with the fire which has just been consuming the victim. Yes, "our God is a consuming- fire." What a picture of that indignation and wrath against sin which is a necessity in the nature of a holy God! And though He pity, yea, love the sinner, that cannot change His holiness. Set me in presence, then, of this righteous and holy God, how can He show me favor? How can the righteousness of God clear or justify me? It seems as impossible as that a "live coal" should purge instead of blasting human lips.

But look again. It is a coal from off the altar:a live coal still, for God's wrath against sin never can die out; God's righteousness never can be aught but what it ever has been. But this live coal from the altar of sacrifice is nevertheless changed in its character so far:it does not blast, but purges. And looking not at the type, but at the Antitype, the righteousness of God in the cross of Jesus Christ does not condemn, but justifies, the sinner. That cross surely is the altar of sacrifice where the live coal has done its work. It is where the righteousness of God has been declared as no where else; but where it is declared, perfect as ever, living and active in its antagonism to sin, and yet not against the sinner, but on his side. So that if I, confessing the sins which prove me one of those for whom He died, take my place thus before Himself, I find Him faithful and just to forgive me my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

God has title to tell out His love-title to show it me-has earned this title at such a cost to Himself, that I cannot but believe He must love much, and love much to tell it out, and make souls happy in it. The gospel, sent out every where, is His witness that it is so. I cannot honor Him more than by giving credit to it.

Will you, beloved reader, if yet you have not? Will you let in this tale of joy which is seeking admittance to your heart at this moment? Is it too good to be believed? Too good fora tale from God Himself? Does it give Him more glory than He deserves? Only take your place with the prophet in this chapter; God's testimony to the work of Christ is this,-that it avails for you; for you, poor undone one, so glad to have this salvation if you only might, for you it avails;-"Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged." Believe it and rejoice.

It is quite beyond me," are words that are often heard from one and another with regard to some presentation of spiritual things. Coming from different quarters, the significance of the expression is necessarily also different. It may be a simple statement of fact, without any moral significance. It may be confession of ignorance, real and lamented. It may be a sarcasm, implying the fault to be with the speaker rather than the hearer, the writer rather than the reader. It may be, alas! and very often is, the unintentional revelation of a state of soul which needs to be considered seriously, for it is in itself most serious.

That as to the fact there are for every one of us things that are beyond us, must be conceded at once. There are babes and young men, as well as fathers:and the farthest advanced will most readily perhaps accept in this respect in the apostle's language, " Not that I have already attained, neither am already perfect." He said it as one pressing on continually ; and there is never a place reached by us where there is need of this no longer. As a matter of knowledge, " we know in part," " we see through a glass darkly," and as long as we know but in part, yet with no hard and fast line drawn to hinder indefinite attainment, there will still be unexplored fields beckoning us-things that are beyond us still.

The question is, do we speak of "things beyond us," with desire after them, and an earnest mind to press on after them, as travelers talk of the blue hills which yet are in the horizon, but which draw nearer steadily as they progress? Or do we speak of them as with an intervening chasm between us and them, which we never expect to pass, and so, having no hope of it, naturally make no effort.

In this case-and this is the alarming thing about it,-we have ceased to be travelers plainly; we have settled down. Is not this the fact at least with many who use such expressions?

Let us make any exceptions needed, however, that we may charge no one wrongfully. There are things beyond us which we may have to accept as that. Life is short, and needs a wise economy of strength and effort that it may be to its fullest possibility fruitful. It is easy to distract ourselves even by a multiplicity of pursuits, individually worthy enough. We cannot all be critics of Scripture-texts, or students of the Bible languages, or versed in controversy or apologetics. It would sometimes be for real blessing to recognize in such ways a sphere beyond us, and rigorously restrict ourselves within the limit of true expediency. Even among profitable things thorough earnestness will seek that which is most profitable, and by close pruning of mere branch and leaf, procure the best attainable fruit. With all this it is very far from my object to find fault. Would that we only knew better how to practice it.

But it is different wholly when we come to the range, immense as it is, of Scripture truth-of that of which it is said, "All Scripture, given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." We have here no option at all, no discriminative power to put away from us any part of what God has given for our learning, and as truth for our sanctification. He who does this is setting up to be wiser than God, despising the love that provided for our need, missing the very thing which he professes to seek by it. Doctrines, such as that of the coming of the Lord, and of which Scripture is full from one end to the other, are dismissed in this way as mere curious questions, irrelevant to holiness, and for which there is not space in a rightly filled up life. But indeed how many of our Bibles, if the unused parts were but to atrophy and drop out, would judge us by their gaps as thus far practical unbelievers! For how many of us the prophets prophesy almost in vain! And if, going deeper than this, we think of chapters and of sections of the books, what a curious net-work of ruin would the pages present, if all these unheeded counselors withdrew themselves from our neglect-dismissed themselves from a thankless service!

It must be confessed that in God's school the scholars are very differently treated from what we might expect, or from the way in which the schools of the day carry on the educational process. In God's school-where from the lowest to the highest all are scholars-there are babes, young men, fathers-every variety of attainment, and measure of capacity. Yet we have no class-books for these different classes, but one common school-book for all grades at once. The simplest parts of Scripture are at the same time often the deepest; the truths of the Word of God are in every page most exquisitely and most intricately interlaced together. It is no mere entanglement, which calls for a hand to separate and unravel; but a perfect, divine manufacture, the beauty no less than the complicity of which resists all such attempts. God means, evidently, that child and mature man shall sit side by side, upon the same bench, and ponder the same lesson, while nevertheless each learns according to his capacity that which harmonizes with and perfects his previous lessons.

But there is to be no picking and choosing of the scholar, no putting himself in class:the blessed Spirit of God, true and only Teacher here, does this unfailingly, dividing to every one his portion of meat in due season. The scholar is to be subject, conscious of his dependence, led along, eye and ear open, amid things confessedly beyond him, part of his discipline to realize this, while encouraged by the assurance that these things too are his own, and by the way he finds them, one after another, actually becoming his. So vast are his possessions, he finds no where a limit; so great in themselves, that if he "think he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." Patience and energy are being thus continually called for; hope is stimulated and assured as well; earnests of his inheritance are being constantly put into his hand. This is God's way of teaching, and our hearts as well as minds approve it.

A ministry of what is-at the moment-beyond us is, therefore, what we need as Christians. If we are to be led on, it must be by the putting before us that which as yet we have not attained, and which without energy of soul on our part will lie ever beyond attainment. For while energy itself may be roused and sustained by ministry, this can without it put nothing into our possession at all. Even the roots of a plant spread themselves under the ground to seek their food, though unconscious. But as we rise in the scale of being, it is still more and more apparent that the law is, " Seek and ye shall find." The nourishment must lie close around the rootlets of the plant; but the animal, and in proportion to its rank in the scale of existence, must seek its food from afar, or it will die of starvation. And when we come to man, what a life-labor is his to secure it! On this very account indeed he would plead that in spiritual things the law should not hold good ; and in the thought of many, grace sets it aside or reverses it; but this is an entire and a most injurious mistake. God is still "the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Heb. 11:6.) It is still "giving all diligence, add to your faith" such and such things (2 Pet. 1:5); and again, "give diligence, to make your calling and election sure " (5:10). Still we are to run a race, and forgetting the things which are behind, to reach on after the things which are before. ….
Let it not be missed, that all progress spiritually means progress in the truth itself-that sanctification is by the truth (Jno. 17:17). It is true this does not necessarily mean more head-knowledge, but often more heart-knowledge. Yet it is the truth itself by which we progress, and only so. There is a secret infidelity here which takes all the failure on the part of those who have the truth as the failure of the truth itself, and thus while insisting upon the "essentials" of Christianity would make all else a thing indifferent. But the failure only shows how little often that which is mentally known is learnt in the heart. To cast the reproach of this upon the truth itself is really wickedness. " By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live" is the assurance of the Old Testament, taken up and emphasized by the Savior Himself, as in the wilderness He repelled the tempter. By this let us repel the tempter still. The very hidden things of the Word are for blessing and sanctification to them that search them out; and they are hidden just to draw forth the energy that will search them out. Like the earth's deep mines, only here and there tilted up and opened to the light, to invite further exploration of their riches, so the Word of God has its lodes of precious ore for the diligent heart-hid in parable, in figures, in names, in numbers, in genealogical lists, and what not. And here, all that glitters is true gold:you will find no dross, no base admixture.

Therefore the law:"If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou"-what? gain some out-of-the-way accomplishment? some unpractical curiosities for the mantle-piece, or literary lumber? Nay, but " then shalt thou understand THE FEAR OF THE LORD, and find the KNOWLEDGE of god." (Prov. 2:3, 4.)

Let it be truth, and what the Word teaches, then we have surely what enriches, satisfies, sanctifies. What looks barren at first sight may carry more wealth within than where the fertile soil repays with full harvests the easy labor of the husbandman. Look at Israel's land of promise, and you shall find it largely a ridge of rocks and hills, the very place to breed a hardy and energetic race. And here the Philistines are not, but on the low level of the coast. "Their gods are gods of the hills," said their Syrian foes; and though this were not the truth, yet it was but the perversion of a truth. Judah's – the law-giver-was a "hill-country." Jerusalem was enthroned upon the hills. God's dwelling-place is Mount Zion, which He loves.

It is certain that in divine things we are called to diligence if anywhere, and the diligent soul it is
that shall be made fat. It is not, of course, that we have all equal time to devote to Bible-study, although it is certain too that here, above all, may we not say, the will can make a way. Scripture carried in the mind can be ministered by the Spirit, of God, meditated on amid necessary toil, and, instead of making the task heavier, lighten it exceedingly. But the question is not of how much time is at our disposal, but of the heart we have to dispose of it,-the purpose to enter upon our possessions,-the pilgrim yearning to go on, and make the horizon Of to-day the attainment of tomorrow.

Such will still and ever find "things beyond" them; but this will not discourage, but incite forward. They will say, "Not that I have attained, but I press on." Is it not indeed commonly the reason for stopping short, not because the acquisition of truth is unpractical, but for the opposite reason? I have said sometimes, it is as if Scripture were written out on sign-posts by the way we travel; we must travel the road in order to read it therefore. And it will be found in general that the energy which does not find its outlet here, is in fact going off in other directions.
I conclude with this, that if things are, as to knowledge, beyond us, we are wholly incompetent to judge of them; if they are Scripture-truths, to think of them as unpractical is accusing God their Author; to stop short of possessing them, is to defraud ourselves of our inheritance.

Surely, "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed."

" To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom. 4:5.)

Many a sincere soul is perplexed by the question, whether his faith is of the right kind or not. Granting, as we must, that there is a dead faith and a living faith, that "faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone," and that even the devils may believe, after a certain sort, without it being any sign or evidence of good in them, the natural thought is, therefore, to look in upon one's self, and find out whether our faith is such as saves or not. Even apparent scripture may be quoted, and often is, for self-examination upon this point, as for instance, " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith:prove your own selves," -a text upon which many a sermon has been preached with most false application, inviting Christians to continual doubt, under the specious pretext of making sure of their Christianity.

For it is plain that if the apostle, writing to those already accepted as Christians, invites them yet to examine and see if such they really were, he supposes them to be in doubt upon the point, or else that they ought to doubt; and if this be a right thing to urge upon all Christians, as he urged upon those at Corinth, then they ought never to be beyond doubting. And thus the plain inconsistency of such a recommendation is seen, and that what is called making sure of salvation would be really making all unsure.

The fact is, that those who make self-examination the way of assurance, are compelled in most cases
to own that upon that very ground none can be quite sure. For is not the heart "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked"? And if people object that that is only true of those who have not a new heart,-even allowing that, we may well ask, Is there not in the case before us just the question to be answered-whether we have the new heart? We have no right to take for granted the very thing to be proved. If our hearts arc new, there is of course no question as to our being "in the faith." If there is doubt about that, there is very grave doubt as to whether we shall get a proper answer to any question upon that point we can put to them. Scripture asserts, as a broad, general truth as to this, that "he that trusteth his own heart is a fool."

But then, what about the apostle's exhortation? Just this (which may be said of many another thing apparently brought from Scripture):it is mis-quoted, because only half-quoted. Reproving the Corinthians for the doubts they had begun to entertain as to whether Christ had indeed spoken by him, he puts it to them that then they must question their own Christianity. They owed their own conversion to his preaching, and if Christ had not spoken by him, then He had never spoken to them. The beginning of the sentence, obscured to a careless reader by some intervening words, which I omit, is in 2 Cor. 13:3, and the whole argument (for such it is,) reads thus:"Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, . . examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith:prove your own selves." And then, instead of taking it for granted that they would seriously do that, he asked them whether they needed to examine, "Know ye not, your own selves, how that Christ is in you-except ye be reprobates?" If they took that latter ground, the proof of Christ speaking in him was indeed gone.

He appeals, then, to the certainty of their knowledge about themselves to reprove their uncertainty about himself; and tells them, if they are going to set about proving in the one case, they had better set about proving in the other. And this is what people take up as an exhortation to all Christians seriously to examine themselves to see if their Christianity be not all a mistake!

But the question remains, If only they that believe are justified, and moreover there is a false and dead faith, as well as a real living one, how am I to know whether I have the right kind of faith except by self-examination?

Now the text at the head of this paper, if weighed in the soul, will give us, I surely believe, the means of answering this. Christ died for the ungodly. Yea, "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." This is most evidently how the apostle can say in the text that God "justifieth the ungodly," and also "to him that worketh not." If my condition is one of real impotence, of one without strength, then righteousness must be "to him that worketh not" in my case, or for me not at all. That is simple,-at least, if justification is the beginning of a Christian course. That it is so is just as simple too, because it is "the ungodly" whom He justifies:the sinner, and not the saint. I have not, then, to work myself out from sinnership into saintship before I am justified:as a sinner, I begin with that.

Faith, therefore, in One who justifies the ungodly, works necessarily this as a main thing, that I cease
from working for justification. The two things necessarily go together here:" to him that worketh not, but believeth." He justifies the ungodly. I am that. I have not therefore to get to be something else, but simply to own my condition in the presence of His grace, and I am righteous:this faith is counted unto me for righteousness.

There can thus be no doubt as to my having justifying faith. The faith that, seeing God stoop down to take up sinners, makes me give up self-righteousness, to take my place as a sinner before Him, is true and justifying.

But notice, then, this faith is occupied, not with itself, but with the grace of God in Christ. I have got, in a certain sense, a step lower even than " he that believeth on Him hath everlasting life." That is, it is not even the sense of my believing that comforts and settles my soul, but the sense of love which has come down to me as a sinner. I see my sin, not my faith. My sin is easy to be seen, my faith much less easy. And, wonderful to say, it is my sin which gives me title to my Saviour. I give up all pretension to be anything; I take my place before God, not as a worker, but as a sinner; the grace which justifies the sinner is what enables me to take a place before Him just as that; and doing so, I am justified; and have the true and saving faith.

This settles also another question. People ask how you can say that you have the direct testimony of the Word of God for your salvation so as to make it sin to doubt that. Plainly, it is sin to doubt God's word. "But," they contend, "while you have God's word that all believers will be saved, you have not that same word that you are a believer:that must be an argument at best, and you may be mistaken."

I admit at once that it is an argument that such and such an one is a believer. But it does not follow that the Word of God does not give me direct and positive testimony to what I am. For, as we have seen, that testimony is, that Christ died for the ungodly, and that God justifies the ungodly. Dropping all effort, then,-all pretension to do any thing, or to be any thing but "ungodly," I see a Saviour for me, as that, whose love, whose power, whose all-sufficiency, it would be "sin to doubt." There is my assurance. I have title to trust him, if not myself. Can I trust Him too much?

This is a very solemn subject, and yet it is one most satisfactory the better we understand it. I believe every act of our lives will be set forth there, so that God's grace and dealing with us with reference to our own acts will be known there. It is said in Rom. 14:, " Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." The judgment-seat is there referred to in connection with the admonition to the brethren not to judge one another with respect to a day, or eating meat. I am disposed to think that only the deeds will be matters of manifestation; but so much is every act of our lives dependent on inward feelings, that it is in one sense hard to distinguish between deeds and thoughts. Acts always declare the strength of the thought or feeling. I believe all our doings shall be detailed there-not to us as in the flesh for condemnation, but to unfold to us the grace which has dealt with us, regenerate and unregenerate. Our whole history will be detailed there, and, in parallel line, the history of His grace and mercy toward us. The why and the how we did this or that will be declared then. It is declarative, and not judicial, for us. We are not in the flesh before God. In His eye, blessed be His name, we are dead ; but then where we have walked after the flesh, we must see how we lost blessing-what a loss it has been to us; and on the other hand, His ways toward us all, in wisdom, mercy, and grace, will be fully known and comprehended for the first time. Of course, there will be no replying, but each history will be like a great transparency. How you yielded, and how He preserved ; how you slipped, and how He rescued ; how you approached danger and shame, and how He, by His own hand, interposed. I believe it will be the bride making herself ready, and I regard it as a wondrous moment. There will be no flesh there to receive condemnation, but the new nature will enter into the transcendent love and care which in true holiness and justice, even in grace, have followed us every step of our journey. Passages in our lives now utterly unexplained shall be all seen clearly then. Tendencies of our nature which we may not think would lead to desperate issues, and to curb which we may now be subjected to a discipline which we have not interpreted, will be fully explained there ; and still more the very falls which distress us sorely now will be shown then as used to preserve us from worse. I do not believe that we shall get any thing like a full view of the evil of our flesh till then. We shall have done with the flesh then ; but I believe the display of His grace individually to us will be so magnificent that even the sense of the evil of the flesh that were ours, if it were possible to intrude, will be prevented by the greatness of the other. Why do we not deny and mortify our members when we remember that hour? The Lord enable us to do more to the glory of His grace.

The subject leads the soul into a very full sense of our individual place-to think of each giving an account of himself to God.

I do not know that the judgment-seat of Christ is used oftener than in Rom. 14:and 2 Cor. 5:In the former, to prevent private judgment; in the latter, to provoke to present well-doing and self-judgment, in view of that day.

5. THE KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH.

To most Christians perhaps, even at the present day, the kingdom and the Church are one. The Church practically is the whole body of professors:what, else is the kingdom? They would not deny that these are different aspects,-that, the thought connected with each is different, but they are aspects only of the same thing. We have now, then, to consider how far this difference extends-whether it be only of thought, or of the things themselves.

The kingdom we have seen to be the sphere of discipleship; the Church is, in its fundamental idea, the body of Christ,-it is the unity of His members. Notice that that action of the Spirit by which we are brought into this body is called " baptism:" " by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." (i Cor. 12:13.) Scripture, by adopting this word in this connection, institutes a comparison, thus, between the kingdom and the Church. But the one baptism is an external rite; the other, inward and spiritual. The error of identifying the two spheres has led to that of identifying the two baptisms ; but the one is in the hand of man, the other in the power of God alone.

The Church is not only the body of Christ; it is also the house of God:and under this figure of a house the Lord first speaks of it in the gospels,- " Upon this rock I will build My Church." Peter, taking up and extending the Lord's words, shows us this building and its foundation clearly:"To whom coming, as unto a Living Stone, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." (i Pet. 2:4, 5.) But Paul it is, to whom the doctrine of the body of Christ was committed, who first explicitly calls the Church, as indwelt by the Holy Ghost, the house and the temple of God. (Heb. 3:6; i Cor. 3:19.) As the Church, then, is in the kingdom, which is yet wider and external to it, it stands with respect to the kingdom as the temple to its outer court. In the former, the priestly family drew near and worshiped; in the other alone, the Israelite of the common people. Peter identifies, as it were, the house and the priesthood:"a spiritual house, a holy priesthood."

The house and body were, in God's design, and for a short time at the beginning, exactly commensurate. The one was composed of living stones, the other of living members. But men with their bad building have done as was foretold:they have unduly enlarged the house. They have built in "wood, hay, stubble." (i Cor. 3:12-17.) Thus the house is become " as a great house," in which there are vessels of gold and silver, of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor." And it will be purged from its disorder only when the Master comes.

But we have not here to think of the disorder, but to look back to the beginning to get the true design of the divine Architect. The more simply we can do so the better.

In the kingdom, then, we have individual responsibility, conditional blessing, a place of privilege to which man has authority to introduce his fellow; in the Church, a place of absolute grace, relationship to one another, communion:and here belongs another institution which expresses this. Paul, the special apostle of the, Church, to whom it was given to complete the doctrine of it, was not sent to baptize, (i Cor. 1:17.) But he has, by distinct revelation from the Lord, the institution of the memorial feast, in which not only do we symbolically "eat the Lord's flesh and drink His blood," but in which also it is expressed that "we, being many, are one bread, one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." (Chap. 11:24; 10:17.)

Baptism and the kingdom speak of conditional blessing and individual responsibility; the Church, and the breaking of bread, of already-enjoyed (therefore absolute) grace, and fellowship in it, relationship to one another and the Lord. The kingdom is the outer court of the sanctuary ; the Church, the house of God, the sanctuary itself. The first affirms God's desire toward all; the last is the espoused object of Christ's unchanging love.

It may thus be seen why Paul, the "minister of the Church " as we have seen in a special sense, claims to be also specially the " minister of the gospel" (Col. 1:23), and to have as his peculiar mission "to preach the gospel" (i Cor. 1:17), the last in some sort of opposition even to a commission to baptize. So tie speaks of "my gospel"(Rom. 16:25), associating with it the " mystery " of the Church. And, as has been fully shown by others, in fact it is Paul who alone speaks plainly of justification and of our place in Christ. With the other inspired writers it is rather forgiveness, although I do not say that there are not passages which look beyond this.

In the kingdom, the twelve are to sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matt. 19:28.) Here we cannot imagine a thirteenth throne for Paul. The commission to baptize, we have seen, was given to them also, although Paul takes it up and acts upon it, as we all do since.

Paul thus completes-as the sense is in Col. 1:25 -the word of God. The complete truth is given through him, and hence he preaches also the kingdom of God. (Acts 20:25.) All lines of truth we shall find in his epistles who in his own person is the expression of the perfect grace of God. Nay, in a sense, he can bring out the very truth of the kingdom itself with more distinctness, because he is able to give along with it the full position and standing of the true believer.

Accordingly, nowhere so fully as in Paul's epistles do we find the warnings as to a fruitless profession with which we are so familiar. He who can say, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under law, but under grace," can on that very account the more insist that "to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." (Rom. 6:14, 16.) The freedom to which God has called us, the power with which He endues us, make the service of sin now so unutterably solemn; because it is manifestly on man's part the choice of evil:it is man's will in rejection of the grace of God.

On the other hand, even he in the experience of the seventh of Romans can still say," The good that I would," "the evil that I would not," while of Christians characteristically it is said, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Chap. 8:14.) The true Christian, conscious of the grace of which he is the subject, and established in a place which is unchangeably his, is just the one who submits himself joyfully to all the conditions of discipleship; and this is what Paul does in those words of his so often misinterpreted, (9:26, 27)-" I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest after having preached to others I myself should be a castaway." He is here speaking as a disciple under the rules of the kingdom,-as a disciple to disciples; but he knows not only how to tread the courts of the Lord, but how, as a priest, to enter the sanctuary also, and to say, " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us:who can separate us from the love of Christ?"

Here again, to keep the kingdom and the Church distinct, throws light upon the Word. Never will you find these conditions insisted on where it is a question of the child of God as suck, or of justification and the place in Christ, membership in the body of Christ, or any thing which implies that divine grace has indeed wrought in the soul. All such conditions apply to the disciple-to all disciples surely, but as such,-to the kingdom, the court of the temple. The Church is the temple of God itself, the place of enjoyed nearness and settled relationship.

Before we close this, it will be well to notice how the apostle separates these different spheres in the fourth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. His seven unities there comprise and are divided into three concentric circles of blessing, of which he begins with the innermost and proceeds outward. The innermost circle is that of the Church:" There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." Next, we have that of the kingdom:" One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Outside, again, is the world ; not, of course, in the evil sense, but as the creation of God:"one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all." This is the Scripture classification, which it has been our object to establish here.

THE ADDRESSES TO THE CHURCHES, Laodicea:What Brings the Time of Christ's Patience to an End. (Rev. 3:14-22.)-Continued.

How solemn to contemplate the last end of what began so differently! How above all solemn to consider that both at the beginning and the end, the sin and failure of the true people of God it is which initiates and completes the ruin! Who can doubt that Christians themselves are largely taking up this self-complacent assumption -"rich, and increased with goods, and in need of nothing"?

Even by some who deem the time of harvest drawing near we are invited to consider the fact that if the tares are ripening for it, yet the wheat must be ripening too; and that this means that the present generation of Christians is spiritually in advance of every other! We are bidden observe the great awakening of the missionary spirit, the restoration of gifts of healing to the Church, and so on. Surely we are rich, and increased with goods, if this be our condition! And is there not a creed, connected very much with the latter claim, and largely professed among those who naturally take their place as the very leaders of the Christianity of the day, which comes very near indeed to Laodicean profession ? How could the claim to be rich and increased with goods be more really made than by those who profess what they will not indeed call "sinless" and yet do assert for it what ought to be a still loftier, title,-that of " Christian perfection."

Christian perfection is of course the very summit -the ne plus ultra of Christianity. Higher than this no one can hope to go:with such a condition God Himself must be completely satisfied. As Christ is, (so they apply it,) so are they in this world. Perfect knowledge, perfect wisdom, they do not suppose they have, but " perfect love " is the term which exactly fits and describes their condition. They perfectly obey the divine law, and for a large class there remains in them no corruption of nature even, although many would not go as far as that. There are many grades of the doctrine, and correspondingly it affects very distinct classes of Christian profession. Its wide acceptance is a very noticeable thing in these days, an unmistakable sign of the times.

For the term " perfection," and that as applied to Christians, there is scripture, of course. The devil, in deceiving the people of God, will always, if he can, use scripture to accomplish his object. But the term there does not mean what in the dialect of the " higher life " it is made to mean. Take one of the strongest texts used, " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" -the context shows decisively what is meant. We speak of a thing as perfect which has all its parts, without at all regarding the finish of its parts. So the Lord tells us that as children we must resemble our Father, and for this exhibit all the features of our Father's character. We must not only love those who love us, but as He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends His rain on the just and on the unjust, we must exhibit this feature of His character also:" Love your enemies, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 5:44, 45.)

"Perfection" is also used for the mature Christian condition, as a glance at the margin of Heb. 5:14 will show. The term there-"of full age"- is in the margin rendered "perfect," just as in I Cor. 14:20, "be men" is in the margin rendered "be perfect," or "of a ripe age." It is used thus with two applications:in Hebrews, Christianity itself is perfection, or maturity, in contrast with Judaism, which was a state of childhood. But again, among Christians there are those perfect, or mature, in contrast with being babes; and the apostle Paul, in the third of Philippians, in which he disclaims the having attained, or being already perfect, (as a consummation which he would not reach until with Christ in glory,) classes himself immediately after among those who had in another sense "attained:" "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded."

There are many texts which I cannot now go through; but this should prevent the catching at a word, as people are prone to do. Plenty about perfection there is, no doubt, in Scripture; but if we set up any standard short of walking as Christ walked, we are really lowering it. If, on the other hand, we can measure ourselves with Christ, and yet feel no rebuke, we must be indeed inordinately, if not incredibly, self complacent.

Mischief is wrought in two ways by the idea. In the first place, sin must be palliated, excused, covered by misleading names. Lust is called temptation, and sometimes even daring dishonor done to Christ Himself by the insinuation that He too was in like manner tempted. So people quote, " He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," as if it meant that He had such inward desires, only restrained them, so that there was no positive outbreak. This, the actual blasphemy of Irving and Thomas, in milder and less pronounced forms infects many in the present day. The text they quote in the common version favors these views too much. And the Revised Version unhappily perpetuates the error. There is properly, as any one may see by the italics (Heb. 5:15), no word in the original representing "yet." "He was tempted in all points, like as we are, apart from sin" is the true rendering. You must not imply sin in any way in the Holy One of God. Sin it is that produces lust, as the seventh of Romans decisively teaches, as on the other hand lust, again, brings forth the positive outward sin. He had neither; no inward incitement as no sin in act, and herein was our total opposite, who, as Scripture assures us, "in many things offend, all" (Jas. 3:2.)

But again, the character of holiness is sadly spoiled by this perfectionism. In the lips of many, "holiness" means "perfection," and nothing else, and so does "sanctification." And yet in fact holiness itself is marred and perverted by this claim as made. It becomes self-occupation, self-assertion. "Seraphic" men are held up to admiration. And how much of Christ really do you find in the experience so largely boasted of by those who advocate the doctrine? It may be in words-is it in reality, "not I, but Christ liveth in me"? or is it in fact a glorified, transfigured, but very self-conscious I, that lives and reigns throughout them? They do not see that, as the natural life in a state of health does not engross or claim the attention,-as the heart's pulsation, or the lung's work is not furthered, but disturbed, by thinking of it,-as the man in hospital it is who talks of his good days, because they are scarce, and as the dyspeptic it is who "feels" his stomach,-so this aim at a self-conscious holiness produces but a poor, degenerate, sickly Christianity at best. Is it far off from that which says, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knows not that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ?

" I counsel thee," says the Lord to Laodicea here-" I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see."

Three things are here which they are exhorted to " buy." So wealthy are they, the Lord will not talk of giving to them. And indeed it would be a happy thing for them to exchange their riches for them,-false glitter for true gold. This is the first thing:gold. A frequent symbol this is, we know, in Scripture, and pure gold (as here, "tried in the fire,") for what is divine. In the ark of the testimony, and in the furniture of the holy places generally, gold covered all. The apostle, I believe, gives us the exact meaning, when he speaks of the golden cherubim as the " cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy-seat. This "glory " is the display of what God is. God glorifies Himself when He shines out in the blessed reality of what He is; and Christ is the true ark in which two materials are found together-gold and shittim-wood. The radiance of divine glory is the gold ; the shittim-wood, the precious verity of manhood.

Can we not see why to Laodicea " gold tried in the fire" is the first requisite? Their riches were but paper money, manufactured out of the rags of self-righteousness, and of merely conventional, not intrinsic value. Christ was what they lacked:divine glory in the only face in which it shines un-dimmed. This is the power of Christianity, its essence and its power alike, and this is what their false, pretentious Christianity lacked so terribly:occupation with Christ,-discernment of what and where all that is true and valuable in Christianity is to be found. To know where this is, is to have it. Faith that finds this treasure is welcome to its enjoyment. To be without it, is to be poor indeed.

The next thing is, "white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." This is, no doubt, practical righteousness of life and walk. There is a connection between this and the former, which when we have their meaning becomes evident enough. Unless you have the divine glory in the face of Jesus shining for your soul, you will find no ability to live and walk aright. The " white " is the full, undivided ray of light; and God is light. How is our life to be the reflection of this, except as " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, "is shining in our hearts,"to give out the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ in the face of Jesus Christ?" Leviticus must precede Numbers ever. We must go in to see God in the sanctuary before we can possibly come out and walk with Him in the world.

Finally, we have here, "and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Thus there was utter blindness,-the condition of the Pharisees over again. They did not realize it. They said, " We see,"and thus their "sin remained." For the consciously blind, there is with Christ effectual healing; but they, alas! needed not the physician.

These characters, taken in their full extent, reveal a state which is assuredly not Christian. We must not, however, on this account suppose, as some have done, that Laodicea thus represents merely the unbelievers among the Christian profession. Of Sardis it is distinctly said, " Thou hast a name to live, and thou art dead" and yet there are owned among them those who are not only alive, but "have not defiled their garments." This shows that we must beware of ascribing the characteristics of the mass to all the individuals in it. It is a state of things as to which all found in association with it have the gravest responsibility; but to say it is only to be applied to the unconverted is to deprive the warning given of all its power. It is to enable every consciously converted man to wash his hands of the responsibility. Whereas all around us, not only are the signs of Laodiceanism growing continually more manifest, but the infection also of Christians with its spirit. And here again also it is apparent how Philadelphia may open the way to Laodicea itself.

Philadelphia proclaims the brotherhood of Christians, seeks the true Church, insists upon the evil of division, and the maintenance of individual conscience in consistency with the recognition of the one body of Christ in all its members. Laodicea- Satan's counterfeit-proclaims also that the church is one, that union is strength, in order to bring about a grand confederacy in which truth shall be sacrificed for company's sake, and the power conferred by numbers. To the eyes of men, Laodicea becomes thus only the true carrying out of the Philadelphian idea,-itself a better and grander Philadelphia. Here Christ may in the very name of Christ be put outside the door,-a development of principles which are far and wide leavening men's minds, and preparing the way for the dark and dread apostasy in which the dispensation is announced of God to end.

(To be continued.)

CHAP. I 1-5.

We have already noticed that the epistle is addressed to Jewish Christians, but the second verse calls them "elect;" and then follows a remarkable outline of the work of the Trinity. Election is according to the foreknowledge of God the Father; sanctification is by the Spirit; and that sanctification is unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

As to works of law, all was lost; the works of the flesh were unholy ; but by the Father's counsels and choice, and the Spirit's inward work in the new birth, and the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. they were set apart to the path of obedience.

The effect of the Spirit's work in the new birth is a nature that is holy-a being who is pure and holy:" Seeing ye have purified your souls (5:22) in obeying the truth through the Spirit,"-that is, as in John 3:, we are born of water (obedience to the truth) and of the Spirit. Thus the sanctification of the second verse and the purification of the twenty-second verse refer to the holy nature we. receive when born of God. It is by the Spirit we are sanctified in the second verse, by the truth, and by the Spirit we are purified in the twenty-second verse, and correspondingly in Jno. 15:3-" Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."

The seed in the good ground is the Word received when the will is broken. This is at once repentance toward God and faith toward Christ; and this work is wrought by the Spirit; and we have a new nature according to which we delight in obedience and love, whereas the mind of the flesh is enmity to God and to one's neighbor.

Therefore in ver. 22, those who have been thus purified by the new birth are to walk according to it:" See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." In ver. 22, it is obedience which is toward God; here, it is love which is toward one another-fruits of the new life to the glory of our
God, and for our joy and blessing. How great the contrast to the works of the flesh, which have filled the world, and, alas! the Church too, with shame and sorrow! But in the contrast shines the glory of God. "Unto obedience" (5:I), "as obedient children" (5:14), and "obeying the truth" (5:22) show obedience to be the character of faith,-as in Rom. 16:26, the gospel is made known to all nations " for the obedience of faith."

We must distinguish between the sanctifying of the Spirit and the Spirit indwelling. The Holy Spirit comes to abide in the one who is already sanctified, as Jehovah came to dwell in the temple when it had been built and set apart to God. We are born of the Spirit on believing,-that is, we are by the Spirit (as by the blood and by the water- the Word) set apart, or sanctified, to God from the evil nature within and from the world without, when born of God,-that is, when we believe on Christ.

Now we are prepared for the Spirit to come and dwell in us as His temple, as in Eph. 1:13-"In whom after that ye believed," or, as it should be, " In whom having believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." This is the order of Scripture:First, born of the Spirit on believing (and in effect sanctified), then also indwelt, or sealed, by the Spirit; but the latter truth is not a doctrine of the apostle Peter in these epistles, though implied in chap. 1:13.
" Sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood " has its type in Lev. 8:30-" And Moses took of the anointing oil (type of the Spirit), and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him." But in Lev. 14:14 the order is different:First, the blood; then, the oil upon the blood afterward ; because there it is a type, not of the sanctifying of the Spirit, but of the sealing of the Spirit upon one already sanctified.

The doctrine of election according to the foreknowledge of God the Father is here presented. It is full of solemnity and of tenderness of love. " Many are called, but few are chosen." The solemn reality is, that all naturally with one consent refuse (Luke 14:18); and it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom. 9:). But how precious to the believer to know that he was chosen-that he is the object of the Father's love, "as the elect of God, holy and beloved." (Col. 3:) " This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

There is tenderness of love in this, and the effect in the believer who knows this love is, to work affections that correspond,-" Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind." It is as we know and enjoy the "electing grace of God, and the Father's love in Christ, that we become worshipers in spirit and in truth. We become worshipers toward God ; and toward one another, ministers of love and of good; and there is no other power for this in the world but the sovereign electing grace of God by which we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Unbelief will question, and harden the heart; but faith rests in the love of God, and worships Him, and rejoices.

Does this show indifference to others-to the world-to the lost? Nay, it is the very power of ministry to others, and has been for these eighteen hundred years; for whence has the gospel gone out to the whole world? Was it by the law? No, but from those who had known this grace, and could not but make it known to others. Am I saved ? I rejoice to know it was only grace that did it. Have I neighbors unsaved? The word is, "Preach the gospel unto every creature;" "and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17); for God "would have all men to be saved, . . . for there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (i Tim. 2:4); and yet ".strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Here the reasoning mind will adopt one extreme or another error, but faith embraces and holds to the truth which makes equally plain the love and grace of God, and the righteous judgment of God, and man's responsibility. Faith believes that God is good, and that He forgives the repentant sinner; that He is just, and that He will judge the evil-doer. This is to the glory of God; and thus He reveals Himself in His Word, and faith delights in His Word, and will refuse to reason against it, but will receive all sides of the truth in its fullness.

Those that believe are saved; but such are born of God-born again. They enter into a new life, which could not be by law,-that is, by works; for works can only be according to the life already there-the fruit is according to the tree; but children of God are "born, not of blood (not of Abraham, for example), nor of the will of the flesh (not of works), nor of the will of man (by no power in man, Jew or Gentile), but of God." (Jno. 1:13.)

How great a revelation (see Gal. 3:23), then, to these Jewish Christians, to have the heart lifted up from works of law, which tell us only of sin and shortcoming, to the knowledge that we are the elect of God the Father, the work His, and the glory His forever, to us the joy of worship and thanksgiving forever, and willing service!

" Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied," is His salutation. This is the good-will of God for us as we read and hear His Word; and each moment of our lives, we stand in grace (Rom. 5:2); but we also need grace ministered to us to sustain us (Heb. 4:16); and peace is supplied to us from on high, to keep the feet, to keep the heart, in the difficult ways of the great and terrible wilderness. Like the diver, our life is sustained from above. The words "be multiplied" are peculiar to these two epistles, and are perhaps added because we are here being prepared for the fiery furnace and varied testings of the wilderness more than in other epistles (chap. 1:7, 17; 2:20; 3:13; 4:12; 5:10). From the annoyances and sufferings of a servant in a household, to the extreme of sufferings, grace is multiplied to the Christian through all, that the soul may be kept in peace, and the Lord's name be glorified in us.

Let us picture to our minds a people of old drawing near to a mount that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and a voice that made them tremble, and what a contrast to the salutation we are considering-"grace and peace"! In the one case, we have what man is before a holy God; in the other, what God is in grace for man. The Christian needs to lay firmly hold of grace, for it is not only peace to the soul, but the power for holiness. (See Rom. 6:)

And now the apostle who had once looked into the empty tomb in doubt and perplexity, breaks forth into praise and blessing, that by the resurrection of Christ from the dead they had been called to a new and living and heavenly hope that could never perish. All is of grace now, and in the hands of God-the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had wrought this salvation in His abounding mercy, and a heavenly and unfading inheritance is reserved for us, and we, by God's power, through faith, are kept for it. It is through faith, but the power is of God from first to last (Rom. 1:16; Heb. 7:25 ; 2 Tim. 1:8, 9).

The salvation is not yet revealed, but it is ready to be in the last time. When the Lord ascended, may we not say our place there was prepared-our salvation was ready to be revealed ? It was " when He had by Himself purged our sins " that He " sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb. 1:3.) Therefore His appearance in the presence of God for us (9:24) meant, a place prepared for us. But when this salvation shall be revealed, we shall appear with Him in glory.

We are saved now, as regards the soul (5:9; 2 Tim. 1:9), but the Church is not yet delivered out of this scene of humiliation (Rom. 8:18) as it will be at the Lord's second coming. In that sense, our salvation is future.

The saint who dies rests from conflict, and enjoys the presence of the Lord; but the salvation we look for will be when the dead saints are raised and the living ones changed, and all are together caught up into the air, to be forever with the Lord, with bodies of glory like to His (i Thess. 4:15; Phil. 3:21) at His second coming. For this we should be watching hourly. It will not be the end of the world, but the end of this present period of grace, during which the Church is being gathered out, and after which apostate Christendom will be given up to delusion (2 Thess. 2:), and the great tribulation will come upon the whole world (Rev. 3:10), to be followed by the millennium, or a thousand years of blessing, righteousness, and peace upon the earth, at the close of which will be the resurrection and judgment of the wicked before the great white throne and the beginning of eternity. (Rev. 19:; 20:)

The salvation, then, that we look for will be at the resurrection of the just (Acts 24:15), the resurrection of life (Jno. 5:28), the first resurrection (Rev. 20:), which precedes the second by more than a thousand years, and which is the ever-present blessed hope and expectation of the Church.

The Thessalonian saints were told to have on, for a, helmet, "the hope of salvation"-that is, the hope of deliverance by the Lord's coming, which is specially unfolded as a doctrine in first and second Thessalonians.

" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power." May we be daily walking in newness of life, in the power of which, by the Spirit, the believer will enter into heavenly glory at the first resurrection, at the second coming of the Lord.
E. S. L.

(To be continued.)

(Eph. 4:3.)

The blessed truth of God, as broad and catholic as it is spiritual and holy, is being constantly narrowed and stiffened into formality of some kind by the narrowness of our own hearts. We interpret the Word so much out of our hearts,-we see it so much in reference to our own circumstances merely,-the things that are before us are so apt to engross and prepossess us, that we are often little able to realize at all the mind of the Spirit in it. The narrowing of the application becomes a real perversion often thus. Sectarianism is natural to us; and sectarianism means but self,- " our own things," whether in a smaller or a larger circle, and "not the things of Jesus Christ."

We have also to remember that we may be easily ensnared into the identification of these contrasted things with one another. " Our own things " readily become for us the " things of Jesus Christ." Scripture contracted by our selfishness becomes then also the enforcement of our selfishness in the name of the Lord. The idol we have fashioned begins fashioning us; and by this process of action and reaction, how soon and how far may we be led astray! What cause have we to pray for the grace of self-judgment when we take God's Word into our hands, lest we bring our own thoughts into it, instead of receiving divine truth from it!

Has not the blessed truth of the unity of the Spirit suffered this sort of contraction at our hands ? Has it not been often made to serve the purpose of a rigid and narrow ecclesiasticism, and pressed into the very opposite of that which the apostle so earnestly here enjoins? Has it been always used so as to foster the spirit of " all lowliness and meekness, forbearing one another in love"? Has it been sought even to be kept "in the bond of peace"?

But my purpose is not to pursue this at all just now, but to put and answer, as the Lord may enable me, the question, What is the " unity of the Spirit" we are to keep? and how then are we to keep it?- questions in the present day of very great importance surely, amid the strife of parties and opinions ever increasing, and when also there is danger of a mere liberalism which is not of God, effectually aided, with many, by the weariness of the strife itself.

These questions are not really difficult to answer, however, nor are the answers in any way them-selves difficult or questionable. The apostle, in his next sentence, has given us the first of these. As old Matthew Henry would have said, the key hangs very near the door. " There is one body and one Spirit!' Here are two unities, which are plainly to be distinguished, while as plainly related, and that unity of which the apostle speaks proceeds from this relation of one to the other. The "unity of the Spirit" is the unity produced by the one Spirit as animating and controlling the " one body."

The unity of the body, it has been truly said, is not ours to keep. God has taken care for that. Whether we are practically acknowledging it or not, the body of Christ is one, and we are members one of another. But that which practically unites the body together is the living Spirit which puts the members in real and practical relation to one another. They are thus kept in communion with and true subjection to the Head, Christ Jesus. It is not a mere formal, but a true spiritual and intelligent oneness, owned and carried out in mutual sympathy and service,-a service which is duty no less than privilege-and to the full extent of our . ability, within a sphere not less than that of the whole body of Christ.

This is the answer to the first question, and there is surely no need to enlarge upon it, nor to enforce the truth of it. Its truth is manifest:the duty to one another flowing from our place together in the body of Christ will be owned by every true and loyal-hearted Christian wherever found.

But the question of greater difficulty, and therefore of greater interest at the present moment, is as to what is involved in the endeavor to keep the unity-to carry out this principle so easily recognized. The body is no longer manifestly one:the members are separated from one another, variously and widely. Each one of numberless divisions is united by and earnest to maintain the differences by which its adherents are sundered from the rest. Hence discordant views create discordant interests. Collision and conflict are the inevitable results.

More than this:in this strife of party interests, aid is welcome, and one must not too nicely investigate from whence it comes. Impoverished and distracted by internal feuds, the Church of God accepts, if it does not invite, the help of the world, perhaps loosely Christianized, sometimes not that, and sometimes even antichristian. How is a way to be found and held with God through this bewildering, shifting, maze of difficulties? How shall we take a step into this stream without being whirled from our feet by these eddying currents of human passion, emulation, and party zeal? How are we to be large enough yet discriminating enough?-"wise concerning that which is good, and simple concerning evil"?

And yet we are to "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." As the duty remains, so do the way and means of fulfilling the duty. Isolation from whatever affects our brethren is not God's thought for us, who has joined the body together, and would have no schism in it. Whether we will or not, from this interdependence of one upon another we cannot "escape. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." And while there may be and are great difficulties,
these are but the means of testing and drawing out faith, never of confounding it.

How, then, are we to keep the unity of the Spirit? The answer may be given in a few words:by uniting ourselves in heart to every thing in which the Spirit's work is manifest, while turning from and refusing all (though it may be mixed up with this) in which, as tested by Scripture, the character of that work cannot be found.

This is but to apply to the matter before us the principles of the apostle John's last two epistles. Love must be in the truth, is the motto of the second ; The truth must be in love, is that of the third. And these are the two sides of the divine nature, "God is love" and "God is light," made to test our practical conduct. As "grace and truth," they together " came " to us " by Jesus Christ." We cannot sunder them :to sunder is to destroy. Without love, there is no truth in us:love is itself the first and fundamental truth. Without truth, love cannot be.

And so the apostle insists, If you keep God's commandments, this is His commandment, "that he who loveth God love his brother also." On the other hand, if you love your brethren, the children of God, " by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous."
How necessary, in a day of mixture such as the present, to remember these words! And how it would seem often as if we did not believe that " His commandments are not grievous"! How many are the plausible suggestions now that, at least within certain limits, the end sanctifies the means; and that if the object be to serve Christ, a little conciliation of the world and the flesh may secure an immense influence in His favor! No doubt, they would not like to be thought to patronize unholiness who do this, and in truth they do not mean to violate conscience:but it is natural conscience only which they have in mind; not conscience enlightened by the word of Christ,- for in His light they do not see light.

Keeping, then, in mind the only perfect standard of what is "vile" or "precious," we have only come, after all, to the words of God to Jeremiah in a day of apostasy,-"If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth." Priceless words are these indeed, with all their simplicity. We shall do well to ponder them if as yet we have not, to recall them to remembrance if we have. For contact with an evil world, even when necessary, tends to dull our spiritual sense continually, and only by perpetual recurrence to the word of truth can our sanctification be maintained. Let us look, then, at these words to the old prophet, and see if they are not words of power for our day,–if they do not give us at least the underlying principle in the following out of which the unity of the Spirit will be most simply and surely kept.

It is true that in Jeremiah necessarily there is no mention or thought of the body of Christ. And this is now that in which (in a way unknown to the Old Testament,) the Spirit of God dwells. We will not forget that the Church, which Christ loved so as to give Himself for it, is the sphere of this unity which we have now before us. But this affects the details rather than the principles. The work of the Holy Spirit is in all ages morally the same:the work speaks of its Author, and has the impress of His own immutability.

First, then, let us notice carefully that in taking forth the precious from the vile, our occupation is with that which is precious. We do not hunt for the vile, although we cannot but recognize it when it comes before us. We judge it better by our refusal of it than by any amount of analysis and condemnation of it. Our part is, " whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise," to "think on these things." This has a wonderful effect upon the heart. The occupation with evil tends to distress, discourage, and enfeeble on the one hand; on the other, to engender a spirit of controversy and harshness, closely allied with and near akin to a subtle self-righteousness. When that which is good occupies us, we are kept in rest, encouraged, and superior to the evil; love is not merely unchecked, but active, in the presence of what calls it out. If we strive, it is with the desire of rescuing what is of God and dear to Him from what injures and defiles it.

Secondly, this effort is supposed and enjoined in taking forth the precious from the vile. Every where the conflict of good with evil is going on, and divine grace is in unceasing, unwearied activity to win souls out of the darkness and corruption, to God and to the holiness which is the atmosphere in which He dwells. Of this activity we are ourselves the fruit, and in this way have become also its instruments. The world is a vast battle-ground, in which there are only two parties, essentially opposed. He that is not with Christ is against Him; he that gathereth not with Him scattereth abroad. Nor is there pause or relaxation in the continual struggle. To pause is to give way; to cease from conflict is to be overcome ; to persevere is, on the other hand, to win certain victory, and every effort gathers strength for a fresh one. But assuredly we shall not without a struggle "take forth the precious from the vile;" for sin is an armed and aggressive enemy, and the goods of the strong man can only be taken in the might of One who is stronger than he.

The main difficulty lies in this, that although there are but two parties in this strife, and the lines might seem easily enough drawn, in practice it is not so. There is an inner enemy as well as an outer one, and a battle-field in every Christian heart corresponding to that outside. Thus the power of the Spirit has to accomplish in us the work of deliverance from the evil within as well as around; and we have to be with Him, not only in winning from the world the trophies of divine grace, but also in delivering the people of God from themselves and from their fellows, as well as from the world around.

What makes the endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit so difficult, but this? Why does it require all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love? It is because the body of Christ is composed of men in whom sin is and in whom it works; and thus unity can be only maintained by conflict:here, as in the individual, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you should not do the things that you would."

Thus no mere keeping of an external or ecclesiastical unity will suffice us here. Every where, as a first necessity, we need that discernment which only he that is spiritual can have. There is implied a constant exercise, a continual need of being before God, a practiced faith, a thorough individuality of walk, which mere ecclesiasticism, far from encouraging, always represses, as hostile to unity,
instead of favoring it. It is the unity of the Spirit that is to be kept, not that of the Church. And this can never be really kept, I do not say by a violated conscience merely, but by an unexercised one. The Spirit of God ever acts, indeed, in behalf of real unity ; but in this very way it can only be attained by a close and intelligent following of His mind. Could the whole body act as one apart from this, it would only be the more completely contrary to the apostle's precept here.

(To be continued.)

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII

PART I.–(Continued)

INTRODUCTORY.

(2) Prophecies of the New Testament.

What we have gathered, then, from these different prophecies is this :-

I. That the times of the Gentiles-of the Gentile empires-are closed in sudden overthrow by the kingdom of God established in the hands of One who, as Son of Man, comes in the clouds of heaven.

2. That the last form of Gentile power,-the Roman,-ends in blasphemous opposition to God and to His saints -opposition which brings the judgment down.

3. That this opposition displays itself in a special way in connection with the Jews, who, in the security of a covenant with the last head, have re-established their temple-worship at Jerusalem. Three and a half years from the end-a half-week of years-he breaks this covenant, causes the worship of Jehovah to cease, and replaces it by an idolatry which brings in desolation, a scourge from God, lasting until this period expires. Deliverance for the saints, and the end of Gentile dominion, come together with the sudden appearance of the Lord from heaven.

In all this the simple comparison of scripture with scripture has set aside the need of any labored interpretation. The time, times, and dividing of a time of the little horn's prevalence (Dan. Vii.) correspond so in every feature with the last half week of the seventy in chap, 9:, and the time, times, and a half of the twelfth chapter, that to force them asunder would seem almost manifest perversion. The successive prophecies agree with the preceding ones in the most perfect way, while adding each something of its own. The one mind of the Spirit runs evidently through them all.

We are now going to add in the same manner some New-Testament prophecies to the Old, and see if still Scripture will not speak for itself, and become its own interpreter,-if as definite certainty cannot be reached as to the main features of unfulfilled prophecy as with regard to any other part of inspired testimony.

And the first passage we naturally take up proclaims its own connection with what we have been looking at in Daniel. I refer, of course, to the great prophecy of Matt. 24:Read in the light of the prophecies to which it refers, it becomes as clear and intelligible as can be.

The Lord has announced to His disciples the impending overthrow of the temple. They thereupon put two questions to Him, which in their minds were no doubt more closely connected than they would be in ours:" Tell us when shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?"
As to the first question, which of course refers to the destruction of .the temple, we have little to do with it just now. The answer will be found more fully given in Luke 21:, in which the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place more than thirty-five years afterward, is explicitly announced. In Matthew it will be found that the Lord deals rather with the second, double question, where they seem evidently to identify the coming of the Lord with "the end of the age"-for "world" it is not, either here or in the thirteenth chapter, where the same expression is to be found. Literally, it is the "consummation of the age."

Now, remembering Daniel, and that these were Jewish questioners, with at present none but Jewish hopes, but owning Jesus as their Messiah,-with no thought of the long interval which was in fact to elapse before His still future coming, it is plain that the age of which they spoke was the age of law-of Judaism as it then was. Of a Christian dispensation they could have no thought. The "corning" of which they spoke was doubtless connected with, if not derived from, the coming of the Son of Man of which Daniel had spoken. The "end of the age" we have found portrayed there in fact, in terms to which the Lord refers; but while they would necessarily think of it as the end of a Jewish age, most Christians would as naturally from their stand point think of it as Christian.

For us, Judaism is gone forever, and it is a strange thing to speak of its revival; yet we have seen that Daniel shows us a week of special divine dealings with Judah and Jerusalem, cut off from the sixty-nine preceding by an unknown interval in which plainly Christianity has prevailed. And in this last week we find the temple-services again going on until their interruption by the head of Gentile power.

It is to this interruption the Lord refers, directly citing Daniel:"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand 😉 then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains; let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes."

In Luke, where the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans, eighteen centuries ago, is prophesied, while the same injunction to flee to the mountains is given, the sign is different-"Jerusalem compassed with armies;" and these latter directions are omitted, -they would be plainly out of place. No such rapid and instant flight as is here spoken of was needed to escape the desolating hosts. It is merely therefore said, "Let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter there into."

But here, the enemy is in the midst, the saints are the objects of special enmity, and there must be no delay:"And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days; but pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Here it is plain that Jews under the full rigor of Jewish law are contemplated.

And now conies another reference to Daniel. In his last prophecy we find that "at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." (Chap. 12:1:)

Thus it is the great day of Jewish deliverance which is at hand, and they are delivered out of a time of unequaled trouble. The Lord's words echo and emphasize the words of Daniel:"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,-nor ever shall be. . And except those days shall be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."

The precise time of the tribulation is given by the Old-Testament prophet-three years and a half; and we see by the Lord's words that it is impossible to apply here the year-day theory, which would extend it to twelve hundred and sixty years. This certainly would not be shortening the days in any sense.

He follows with the announcement of false Christs and false prophets as characterizing this period,-an addition to the Old Testament of the greatest significance, and which we shall find developed in succeeding prophecies :" Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe him not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs 'and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert! go not forth; Behold, He is in the secret chambers! believe it not. For, as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together."

As in Daniel also, it is by this coming that the time of trouble is closed:"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

For our purpose, it is not necessary to go further. The agreement with former prophecies is clear and conclusive. A latter-day remnant is seen in Jerusalem, distinctly Jewish in character, yet listening to Christ's words, and owned of God; and the end of the age of which the disciples inquire is identified with the broken-off last week of Daniel's seventy. The temple is again owned as " the holy place," though in the meanwhile defiled with idolatry, and this before the Lord's coming in the clouds of heaven. We necessarily ask ourselves, Where, then, is Christianity ? and what does this presence once more of a Jewish "age" imply as to the present Christian dispensation ?

To this, Scripture gives no undecided answer. It shows us that the Christian dispensation (properly so called,) is over then; that the Church, Christ's body, is complete; that all true Christians have been caught up to Christ, and are with Him; that the rest of the professing church has been spewed out of His mouth, according to His threatening to Laodicea; that the Lord is now taking up again for blessing His people Israel and the earth, and we are again in the line of Old-Testament prophecy, and going on to the fulfillment of Old-Testament promises.

That these promises belong to Israel, literally,-His kinsmen according to the flesh,-we have the unexceptionable witness of the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 9:4), who also warns the Gentile professing body, that they stand only by faith, and if they abide not in the goodness of God which He has shown them, shall be cut off; and Israel, abiding net in unbelief, should be graffed back again into her own olive-tree. He tells us also that this receiving of them back shall be "life from the dead " to the nations of the world; that blindness in part is happened unto Israel, only till the fullness of the Gentiles is come in; and then all Israel-the nation as a whole-shall be saved. And he adds that while, as regards the gospel, they are [treated by God as] enemies for our sakes as touching the election they are yet beloved for the father's sakes; because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Rom. 11:13-29.)

Thus the wonderful change which Matt. 24:exhibits is fully accounted for. The Jews and Judaism once more owned, shows that the Christian "gospel," having completed its full gathering of Gentiles as designed by God, is going out no longer. Heaven (though we must make a certain exception which we shall by and by consider,) -heaven is full. The gathering for earth and blessing there is now commencing.

The Lord has spoken of false Christs and false prophets in connection with that time. Let us turn now to the apostle John's description of Antichrist. He warns us indeed that already in his time there were many; already there was the character of the " last time." He speaks of them as apostates, issuing from the professing church itself, never really Christians, though among them, (i Jno. 2:18, 19.) But he goes on to describe one special form, " the liar," " the antichrist," as his words really are. '"Who is the liar," he asks, "but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" And then he adds, "He is the antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." (5:22.)

It will be found that there are here two forms of unbelief, which in this wicked one unite in one. The first is the Jewish one that denies that Jesus is the Christ. They do not deny that there is a Christ, but they deny Jesus to be this. The full Christian belief is not only that Jesus is the Christ, but that He is also the Son of the Father. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father,"-there are many of these now, as the Unitarians so called; but they deny the Son to make much of the Father:the full climax of unbelief in this great head of it is here, that he denieth both the Father and the Son.

Thus the antichrist denies Christianity altogether; but he owns Judaism, for the very denial that Jesus is the Christ implies, however, that there is Christ. And this is the complete antichrist, who is not only against Christ, but takes His place. And so the Lord speaks of "false Christs:" These are, by profession, then, Jews, and the antichrist is a Jew.

How naturally the antichrist belongs, then, to a time when Christianity is gone from the earth, and a revived Judaism is in its old seat, and they are in expectation (as almost necessarily they would be,) of the speedy fulfillment now of the promise of Messiah. When the Lord came in the flesh, there was just such an expectation, and just such fruit of it in the appearance of false Christs. And the words in Matthew show that such a time there will be again; only now with a peculiar power of deception which only the elect escape. Among these blasphemous pretenders is the full prophetic antichrist.

Let us turn to another picture, which the apostle puts before the Thessalonians. (2 Thess. 2:1-12.) Here we shall find what unites John and Matthew, connecting the developed evil of apostate Christendom with the revival of Judaism which the Lord's own words foreshow. And I quote from the Revised Version, which is in many respects an improvement upon the common one:-
" Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him, to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present:let no. man beguile you in any wise; for it will not be except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. . . . For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only there is one that restraineth now until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of His coming:even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing; because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Thus the solemn end of Christendom is revealed. And already in the apostle's days the leaven of evil was at work, which but for a divine restraint upon it would before this have permeated the whole mass of profession. But the apostasy will come, if even now rather it is not begun, of which the issue and final head will be this lawless one, who will sweep away with him to common ruin all that receive not the love of the truth. They will believe a lie-literally, it is "the lie,"-and "who is the liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" He opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or worshiped:certainly therefore " denieth the Father and the Son." But not only so:he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." How can we forbear to think of that abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, which the Lord has called our attention to from Daniel ?

But here is a notable instance of the need we have of the apostle's warning that " no prophecy of the Scripture is to be interpreted by itself." To those rooted in the idea that Judaism is gone forever, and that the Christian Church is now the only "temple of God," what more natural and necessary than to interpret this of the pope ? Nor do I for a moment say that he is not in the direct line of development; prophecy has oftentimes these incomplete anticipative fulfillments, which answer for the full and exhaustive one which is to come. But in the light of all that has preceded, we may be quite sure that any application to the head of Catholicism is only partial and anticipative. Popery has existed for too many centuries to be a sign of the coming day of the Lord; and one sitting as God in the temple of God is too simply explicative of the abomination of desolation in the holy place to make the application difficult or doubtful.

This wicked one, like the little horn of the fourth beast, finds his end also at the coming of the Lord. I do not mean by this that they are the same person, for they are not; but they belong to the same time, and are closely connected.

Thus, then, the New Testament agrees perfectly with the Old in its representation of the end of the age. But we have not examined yet its fullest and most decisive testimony, which we find, just where we would expect to find it, in the book of Revelation. But of this we propose a more extended examination; and we have been gathering together the Scripture-testimony elsewhere only as introductory to this which lies before us. May the Lord Himself direct our inquiries and govern our hearts by the truth of His Word. It is not a mere intellectual study that we propose. We seek to have for our souls the spiritual power of what is unseen,-the future as light for the present,-the judgment of the Lord in the day of the Lord, in order to self-judgment now,-the joy of heaven for present communion. May He who alone can purge from our sight the dullness and drowsiness that so cling to us, our eyes anointed with His eye-salve, that we may see !

What is the real significance of FRUIT? Every physiologist knows that the fruit of a plant is simply an arrested and metamorphosed branch. This is proved by the fact that all the parts of the flower,-viz., the calyx, the corolla, and the pistil, will readily change into normal leaves, and the peduncle into a normal branch; and also by the gradual transition of leaves proper into floral parts. In very wet or warm springs, some of the flower-buds of the pear and apple are occasionally forced into active vegetative growth, so as to completely break up the flower, and change it into an ordinary leafy branch. It is also by no means uncommon to see a green branch covered with leaves, growing out of the heart of a fully expanded crimson rose, or from the summit of a large and perfectly formed pear, or from a ripe strawberry, or from the apex of the cone of the larch. . . All those cases in which the terminal bud goes on to grow, even through the flower and fruit, clearly prove that the flower or fruit which, according to the normal method, arrests all further development of the axis that bears it, is a mere metamorphosed branch. The bud of a plant which, under the ordinary laws of vegetation, would have elongated into a leafy branch, remains in a special case shortened, and develops finally, according to some regular law, blossom and fruit instead. Its further growth is thus stayed; it has attained the end of its existence; its life terminates -with the ripe fruit that drops off to the ground. Whereas the bud that does not produce a flower or fruit grows into a branch, lives for years, and may ultimately attain almost the dimensions of the main trunk itself, clothed with half the foliage of the tree.

In producing blossom and fruit, therefore, a branch sacrifices itself, yields up its own individual vegetative life for the sake of another life that is to spring from it, and to perpetuate the species. Every annual plant dies when it has produced blossom and fruit; every individual branch in a tree (which corresponds with an annual plant) also dies when it has blossomed and fruited. Delay in flowering prolongs life. By nipping off the flowers as soon as they appear, the duration of some plants may be greatly extended; by converting single blossoms into double, and thus preventing their seeding, annuals may even become perennials. . .

The great spiritual principle which every blossom shadows forth is self-sacrifice. The plant produces a flower, and consequently a fruit, for the purpose of imparting life-yea, more abundant life, -and in the production of flower and fruit it dies. It gives its own life for another's-one life for the sake of countless lives that are to spring from it in long succession, generation after generation. And is it not most instructive to notice that it is in this self-sacrifice of the plant that all its beauty comes out and culminates ? The blossom and fruit in which it gives its own life for another, are the loveliest of all its parts. God has crowned this self-denial and blessing of others with all the glory of color and the grace of form, the sweetness of perfume, and the richness of flavor.

And is it not so in the kingdom of grace? Christian fruit is an arrest and transformation of the branch in the True Vine. Instead of growing for its own ends, it produces the blossoms of holiness and the fruits of righteousness, for the glory of God and the good of men. The life of selfishness, self-righteousness, and self-seeking is cut short, and changed into the life of self-denial. The believer who is united to Christ considers the time past of his life sufficient to have wrought the will of the flesh, and henceforth lives no more unto himself, but unto Him that died for him and rose again. The Christian life begins in self-sacrifice:"If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself." We can bring forth no fruit that is pleasing to God until, besought by His mercies, we yield ourselves a living sacrifice to Him. . . . Fruit in the natural and spiritual worlds originates from self-sacrifice. This is the arrest of the natural bud, the metamorphosis of the self-pleasing branch-the passage, as in the case of St. Paul, through an ideal death, through the martyrdom of will and deed, to nobler action, to a heavenly life even, on earth.

And in this self-sacrifice all the beauty of the Christian life comes out and culminates. The life that lives for another in so doing bursts into flower, and shows its brightest hues, and yields its sweetest fragrance. As the common coarse green leaf changes into the delicately formed and brilliantly colored petals in the conversion of leaf-buds into flower-buds, so in the conversion of lovers of pleasures into lovers of God-the common things of life, the gifts and attainments of the natural man, are taken up into a higher experience, and beautified and ennobled. Nothing is lost in the transference, but all is changed and enriched. All is given to Christ, and all is received back a hundredfold. Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like one of those human blossoms on the tree of life, that can say, " I am not my own, but bought with a price, and therefore bound to glorify God in my body and spirit, which are His."

Every spot on which the disciple talks with Jesus of His decease, and is bound by the cords of love to the same altar, is verily a Mount of Transfiguration. There the glory of the inner life bursts through, and irradiates even the outer garment. The face of Moses, when he descended from the mount, shone with a supernatural splendor, because he yielded himself up for the good of Israel. The face of Stephen became like an angel's when he gave up his life a witness for Christ, and in imitation of his Master's wondrous self-forgetfulness, prayed for his murderers:"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." And has not many an unknown man and woman been similarly transfigured when becoming one with Christ's Spirit in sublime self-abnegation? Have we not seen the glory of self-sacrifice ennobling even the aspect of the countenance, the expression of the eye, the carriage of the form, making the plainest and homeliest face beautiful and heroic? Who has not beheld, with a feeling almost of awe, some lowly root out of a dry ground blossoming into a miracle of beauty as he entered into the cloud with His Lord, and was baptized with His baptism? The pain of martyrs, the losses of self-sacrificing devotion, are indeed the blossoms of life,-"the culminating points at which humanity has displayed its true glory and reached its highest level." In the sacrifice of self-will in its bud and root to God, a glory and a bliss are opened up of which the selfish worldling is utterly ignorant and destitute. We "prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

" For who gives, giving doth win back his gift;
And knowledge by division grows to more;
Who hides the Master's talent shall die poor,
And starve at last of his own thankless thrift.

" I did this for another ; and, behold,
My work hath blood on it! but thine hath none:
Done for thyself, it dies in being done ;
To what thou buyest thou thyself art sold.

" Give thyself utterly away. Be lost. [own;
Choose some one-some thing ; not thyself, thine
Thou canst not perish, but thrice greater grown,-
Thy gain the greatest where thy loss was most.

"Thou in another shall thyself new find.
The single globule, lost in the wide sea,
Becomes an ocean. Each identity
Is greatest in the greatness of its kind.

" Who serves for gain, a slave, by thankless pelf
Is paid ; who gives himself is priceless, free,
I gave myself, a man, to God:lo, He
Renders me back a saint unto myself."

(Hugh McMillan:"The True Vine.")

THE ADDRESSES TO THE CHURCHES, Philadelphia:the Revival of the Word of Christ, and the Brotherhood of Christians. (Rev. 3:7-13.-Continued.)

It has been often observed, and is evidently true, that the person of the Lord is more prominent in this address than in any of the others. It is a beautiful testimony that He is being Himself sought after with a new earnestness, to which He with a full heart responds. And the character in which He displays Himself is that of holiness and truth; for there is no way of nearness to Him but by separation from the evil that He hates, and being formed by the truth which He reveals. The Word is separative and formative? The mark of its reception is, the abandonment of all iniquity, marked as such, not by the common conscience of men, but by the Word itself. This is the sign of entrance into the sanctuary-of the presence of the Lord realized, when in His light we see light.

Absolute truthfulness is rare indeed. The penalties attending it are so many, often to be escaped by so slight a swerving from the strict path,-a path often so lonely and without sympathy, and so barren as it might seem in its isolation. Even to Christians, Christ often appears to have deserted it. And then after all to break down there! and what so likely as to break down? In this way we may connive at self-deception; for what do all these reasonings amount to, but that the path is to be a path of faith to us now as it ever was, and difficulties are to be as ever the test of faith?

Here, then, is conscience challenged as we enter on this address to Philadelphia. Have we indeed the " courage of our convictions" ? or, perhaps, have we the courage to expose ourselves to possible conviction ?

And note that the " holy " goes before the " true." There may be " truth," or "genuineness" as the word means, where after all holiness is not maintained. Satan succeeds by some puzzle for the mind in diverting many from a true issue. Authority may be pressed and bowed to as from God, and the soul awed into subjection to what it dares not approach near enough to recognize in its true character. Conscience may act, but blindfold, at the bidding of another than its "one Master." With Him, on the other hand, the "holiness" it is that guarantees the "truth."

He who thus declares Himself invites after all to no path of uselessness:He has the key of David, is Ruler over the kingdom absolutely, opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens; and to those whom He addresses, pledges an open door, plainly for service, as the whole tenor here implies, and as the apostle three times over uses the expression (i Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3). Who could be in Christ's company without finding on the one hand His rejection, on the other how human hearts recognize their Lord? Here is no contradiction, but what every page of the gospels bears witness of to us.

Assuredly faith will still be necessary, and a judgment by results will be often much mistaken.
If we wait for these to authenticate our course to us, we must in the meanwhile walk doubtfully, and not in faith. These words are an assurance rather to those who may be pursuing what to sense seems doubtful enough as to its issue. He affirms it to them. If they have the character here,-if they are with the Holy and the True,-holy with the Holy, true with the True,-then precisely because of this assurance, they need not ask, Will this be fulfilled- is it being fulfilled to us? Our eyes must be upon the path and the Leader. Success, where it seems fullest, must yet be tested rather by the future than the present-rather by eternity than time; and he who follows it most will be most distracted by other voices than His who speaks here. What tempter lures indeed the servants of Christ like this? For how many does success, rather than the Word of God, sanction their measures, while alluring them into direct opposition to the Word! If even gained in true obedience, how often does the flattery of great achievement unbalance a soul which adversity could only school to more endurance ! These things are but common-places of experience; and in view of them, we need not wonder if God has, in general, been sparing in measuring out to His people great success.

And yet finally the success is great indeed, as it is certain to those who conform to the rule laid down as of old to Joshua:"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein :for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success." Alas! how much oftener is this thought to be insured by a supple and worldly wisdom than by a close and undeviating adherence to the Word of God!

The Lord now gives here, as elsewhere, what He approves in them:" For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name."

A little strength He marks and approves; yet it is but a little. No Pentecostal energy revived, no faith that can move mountains, shall we find here. The "day of small things," in the Christian as in the Jewish history, is not at its beginning, but at its close. It is a great mistake to confound the day of Ezra with the day of David. And although it may be said, and truly, that eternal life and the power of the Spirit know no decrepitude, yet our day and generation leave their imprint on us. They should not; we are not blameless in it; yet they do. Still "a little strength" is here approval.

And how is this marked? Surely in what follows,-" Thou hast kept My word, and not denied My name." It is not in gifts restored to the Church, as some claim now; it is not in ecclesiastical position, nor in numbers, nor in place among men;-in none of these things is there strength before God, but in obedience and devotedness.

We have seen in Thyatira Jezebel's word claimed as inspired and authoritative; we have seen, too, in Sardis, a separation from and refusal of such claim:yet the Church, though no longer inspired, teaches still. There is, as men say, an open Bible, (blessed be God for it!) and with this, a certain necessary diffusion of light. The Reformation creeds insist upon the fundamental truths of the gospel, and these have been sealed by the lives and deaths of the martyrs. At the first, also, these
creeds are in harmony with the convictions of those who subscribe them, although very soon dissent has to be embodied in a separate creed. Then a strife of creeds begins which has been the shame and reproach of Protestantism,-which has added schism to schism and sect to sect.

For the creed in Protestantism,-the pretension to catholicity, as in Rome, being gone,-means sectarianism. Who that has the thought of Christ's Church would undertake to frame a confession or constitution for it? Hence all such things now are local, and professedly for a part only. It is a fencing off of a greater or less number from the rest. If you cannot agree, you are at best dismissed to go elsewhere, and find or make a party for yourself.

But he who will keep Christ's word can bind himself to none,-must preserve his individuality of conscience, subject to one Master only ; as much so as if there were no other Christians but himself on earth:and in a true walk with God, the knowledge of Himself, acquaintance with His Word increases with each step of the way. The light brightens to the perfect day, and in this brightening light we are called to walk, true to it, and to Him whose light it is. An immense thing it is, in a day like this, to be keeping, with an exercised heart, the word of Christ! Not a word here and there; not following it until the cost may be too much; but through honor and dishonor, through evil report and good report. For is there right obedience any where, when there is not in our purpose obedience every where? Can He whom we serve accept a compromise to His own dishonor, when we really tell Him we will do this, but not that, at His bidding? Solemn questions these, which may His grace keep ringing in our ears, until they wake up only harmonies of joy and peace within our souls, and not self-accusation.

Let us understand that keeping Christ's word means, if it mean any thing, honest subjection to the whole of it:to that of which we may not even perceive the importance, as if we did; calling nothing little which He enjoins-of what has equal authority with the weightiest to emphasize it for us. Herein is often the truest test of a right spirit in us, when we obey not in uncertainty, but in darkness; and go out upon His leading, not knowing where.

We have need to remember, too, that our own contrary wills are often the most effectual hindrances to receiving what is really Christ's word. How solemn it is to think that of the mass of things in which we differ from each other as Christians, this contrariety must needs account for very much the larger part. The Lord's words are plain enough, and universally applicable, that " if any one will do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." It is due to Him to own that as the blessed Spirit of God could not lead into contradictory beliefs, these differences must be of us, and not of Him. But then, found as they are in so many whom we must esteem as godly men, what a warning they give us of how much that is not of God,-of real in subjection-may be found even in such. So far as we have indeed whole-heartedly followed Him, who can doubt that He has led us right? But then how little really unreserved following of Him there must be after all!

And who can measure the loss even now? and who then can measure the eternal loss, when we
thus let slip communion with Himself? And how many are trying to win it back, or make up for its absence by filling their hands with work for Him, as if they were almost persuaded that "to obey is" not " better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

How plainly perceptible it is when a soul reaches the barrier line beyond which he will not go! Activities may go on, and the whole outward man be no other than it was, yet there is something gone from the soul which at once one with God will discern as hindering fellowship. How sorrowful to lose one another's company this way, while yet perhaps the feet go on together! But if we lose Christ's companionship, what shall replace it?

Naturally and necessarily connected, then, with "Thou hast kept My word," is this:"and hast not denied My name." Christ's name expresses what He is. " They shall call His name ' Emmanuel,' which being interpreted is, 'God with us.' " And to fulfill this, He is named "Jesus"-"Jehovah saving;" for save He must, that God may dwell among us. Thus, again, He is "Christ." the Anointed One, to fill the Mediator's place,-with God for us, with us for God. Who that knows it would deny this blessed name?

What does it express, what does it emphasize for us but communion with God? He hath come out after us, left His place and glory, to let the light of that glory in upon our hearts. It is in Him, this glory, in-

" The person of the Christ,
Enfolding every grace."

Justified we must be, to be able to draw nigh ; and without sanctification " no man shall see the Lord;" but the Lord Himself is thus the end and sum of all. " Christ is all," says one whose life spake with his lips; and " I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom 1 have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him."

It is, as often said, what gives the peculiar glow to the picture of Philadelphia here, that it is Christ personally who fills the scene of their vision, and who associates them with Himself. This is what gives them their name, surely, in its spiritual power and value; for never was Christ welcomed into a heart but He made room in it for all His people. This is true linking with one another when we are united by the Center,-when our association is first of all with Christ, and this determines the measure and character of all other associations. For indeed there is much, even among the people of God, that is not Philadelphian, but only a corrupt and evil counterfeit. If our "part" is first of all to be with Christ, let us hear Him say, " Except I wash thee, thou hast no part with Me." And this is not spoken of the first general " washing" when we are born anew, which the Lord expressly distinguishes from this washing of the feet, the cleansing from all defilement by the way. If He washes, there can be no compromise with defilement; our feet must be in His hand; there must be surrender to Him at all points, so that He may be able to show us all that is evil in His sight. Thus alone can we have part with Him; and therefore in this way only can we have rightly part with one another.

To this such union as can be obtained by compromise is in essential contradiction. It is mere confederacy, whatever may be the end proposed. God has one method for us by which we may walk together according to His mind, and only one. We are to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." By taking the same road, we are necessarily brought together. The road is guaranteed to us by its four decisive marks; and here there can be no compromise, we must not give up any one of these. Moreover, it is thus by a path in the strictest sense individual that we find our company; yet it is wide enough to contain "all that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart." Its characters are, first of all, "righteousness," and this must be maintained before we can properly speak of " faith " at all. But then "faith" marks the conscience in the presence of a living Lord, as well as a heart confiding in Him; and so it is only that we can have this restful, practical confidence, as we walk in conscious recognition of and obedience to His will. Here "love" then comes in due place,-we can now let our hearts out; and in this atmosphere love will develop itself. While lastly, " peace " characterizes it in view of opposition and conflict and trouble:the Lord is over all the uprising of the water floods. In all this, it may be said, there is nothing but the most complete individualism ; yet here it is we find the divine law of association. There is no confederation, no agreement, no prescription of terms to one another. One Master prescribes to every one his place, and in accepting that place we find the true law of co-operation with one another. United to Him as members of His body, we are, to begin with, "members one of another." This is not a question submitted to us, whether we shall be one; and to form other unions, while it may be ignorance, is none the less complete opposition to His will". Alas! in our day it is not "union is obedience" that is the motto, but "union is strength;" and for whatever purpose men may have, they combine. Strength of a certain sort is found, no doubt; but it is not where he found it who says, "When I am weak, then am I strong;" " I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me."

Individuality is thus lost, a majority decides for the remainder; for the advantage gained, certain things which we do not approve must be acquiesced in. Conscience, at first uneasy, becomes more tolerant. More demands made upon it find less and less the power of resistance. Christ's word is given up, and what is due to His name forgotten. How many have thus lost in their souls the sensitiveness to sin they once had; yet the apostle insists, " Let him that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." Blessed, thrice blessed are they who, if they have but a little strength, yet have kept His word, and do not deny His name.

(To be continued,)